Optimized isolation and expansion of human airway epithelial basal cells from endobronchial biopsy samples

Autologous airway epithelial cells have been used in clinical tissue-engineered airway transplantation procedures with a view to assisting mucosal regeneration and restoring mucociliary escalator function. However, limited time is available for epithelial cell expansion due to the urgent nature of these interventions and slow epithelial regeneration has been observed in patients. Human airway epithelial cells can be expanded from small biopsies...