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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Multicellular Human Alveolar Model Composed of Epithelial Cells and Primary Immune Cells for Hazard Assessment
Published on: May 6, 2020
Phospholipid biosynthesis and secretion by a cell line (A549) which resembles type II aleveolar epithelial cells
Abstract:
The A549 cell line is a continuous cell line derived from a human adenocarcinoma of the lung. At low cell population density the cells contain relatively few lamellar bodies, but in mature cells in very confluent cultures lamellar bodies are abundant. The lamellar bodies from these cells are enriched for phosphatidylcholine and disaturated phosphatidylcholine. In mature cells, 45% of newly synthesized phosphatidylcholine is disaturated. Stimulation with the calcium ionophore A23187 produces exocytosis of phosphatidylcholine (46% disaturated). The A549 cell synthesizes, stores in lamellar bodies, and secretes phosphatidylcholine, and thus has many important biological properties of the alveolar epithelial type II cell.
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