Fig. 6

Morphological appearance, barrier integrity, permeability, and the structure of static mono-cell culture (DHBE), static co-culture (DHBE-NHLF) and dynamic co-culture (CNBio DHBE-NHLF) disease models. A The morphology of cells at the end of culture (on the Day 25 of culture). Scale bar represents 200 µm; and representative SEM images (scale bar, 10 µm) and IF staining show the tight junctions of disease models including static mono-cell culture (DHBE), static co-culture (DHBE-NHLF), and dynamic co-culture (CNBio DHBE-NHLF) on the Day 25 (scale bar, 50 µm). B The electrical resistance of disease models was measured over the course of 25 days of cell culture; ALI condition was performed on Day 7 for all disease models; C The permeability of FITC-Dextran into the basal side of all the models. Negative (-ve) control was cell culture media only, without FITC-Dextran. Positive (+ ve) control was empty insert without cells. Error bars indicate for standard deviation. Statistical significance was shown between (+ ve) control and CNBio DHBE-NHLF; *: P < 0.05. D Cross-section histological representative images and IF staining displaying essential epithelial features, including acetylated α-tubulin (green) – marker for ciliated cells and MUC5B (red) – a marker for goblet cells for the static and dynamic culture models. Objective 40x, scale bar represents 50 µm