New functional cell-culture approach to pulmonary carcinogenesis and toxicology

Modern pulmonary toxicology (including lung carcinogenesis) has, to assist its rapid development, constantly incorporated the knowledge obtained through cell and tissue-culture studies. While this has been carried out in rather a passive manner until quite recently, the currently necessary multi-disciplinary approach increasingly requires more active involvement of cell/tissue-culture techniques in this area. Our understanding in this regard is that one of such requirements is to establish a cell-culture system consisting of a single population of possible target cells for certain classes of hazardous inhalants. In addition, such target cells in culture should be able to function in a manner as closely resembling the situation in vivo as possible. In view of the culture techniques presently available, this requirement is probably too ideal to be met immediately. Nevertheless, efforts have been made in the last decade to achieve functioning cultures of Clara cells, type II pneumocytes or small mucus granule cells (SMGC), using undifferentiated cells obtained from animal and human fetuses. This attempt forms a sharp contrast to the usual approach, in that while the latter tries to keep the functions of adult cells in an already differentiated state, the former aims at inducing functional differentiation in undifferentiated cells by manipulating culture conditions. In carrying out these efforts, we have shown clear evidence that the type II pneumocytes and Clara cells induced in vitro are closely cognate and share a common precursor cell in culture, and that SMGC are at a pre-stage of differentiation to Clara cells. We have also shown an induced capacity for xenobiotic activation and conjugation in SMGC in culture. Our next plan is to prove similar activity (of mixed-function oxidase) in Clara cells and type II pneumocytes induced to differentiate in culture.