Establishing Air-Liquid Interface (ALI) Airway Culture Models for Infectious Disease Research

Air-liquid interface (ALI) airway culture models serve as a powerful tool to emulate the characteristic features of the respiratory tract in vitro. These models are particularly valuable for studying emerging respiratory viral and bacterial infections. Here, we describe an optimized protocol to obtain the ALI airway culture models using normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBECs). The protocol outlined below enables the generation of differentiated mucociliary airway epithelial cultures by day 28 following exposure to air.