Establishment of an immortalized human subglottic epithelial cell line

Translational research into subglottic disease is restricted by the availability of primary human tissue originating from this subsite. Primary epithelial cells are also limited by their inability to survive beyond several divisions in culture outside of the body. Specific subglottic cell lines, useful for in vitro studies, have not yet been described. We therefore demonstrate what we believe to be the first immortalized subglottic epithelial cell line.

Subglottic tissue was derived from a single adult patient's neoplasia-free human subglottic brushing specimen. Cells were immortalized using a lentiviral vector expressing simian virus 40 T antigen. Karyotyping was performed on the transformed cells using single nucleotide polymorphism array comparative genomic hybridization. Transformed cells were phenotypically characterized by light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and electrophysiology studies.

The immortalized subglottic cell line (SG01) was able to divide successfully beyond 20 passages. Karyotyping demonstrated no significant genomic imbalance after immortalization. The cells demonstrated normal epithelial morphology and cytokeratin expression throughout. SG01 cells were also successfully cultured at air-liquid interface (ALI). At ALI cells demonstrated cilia, mucus production, and relevant ion channel expression.

The novel SG01 subglottic epithelial cell line has been established. This cell line provides a unique resource for researchers to investigate subglottic diseases, such as subglottic stenosis.

NA. Laryngoscope, 129:2640-2645, 2019.