Pulmonary Cell Culture Models to Study the Safety and Efficacy of Innovative Aerosol Medicines

Background: Pulmonary cell culture models for the development of new aerosol medicines are attracting increasing interest. Ease of handling, ethical acceptance and high explanatory power are the main advantages of cell culture systems in pulmonary drug research.

Objective: Pulmonary cell culture models are described and evaluated regarding their suitability for the biopharmaceutical characterisation of innovative aerosol medicines.

Methods: The review focuses on the peculiarities of the pulmonary cell culture models arising from the specialised pulmonary epithelia, the clearance systems in the lung and the limited but functionalised lung fluid layers. Additional aerosol deposition systems suitable for the close to in vivo simulation of aerosol delivery on pulmonary cell cultures are described.

Results: Suitable cell culture models of the cellular part of the human air-blood barrier are established and well characterised. However, the physical barriers on top of the cellular barriers - surfactant, mucus and so on - and their influence on the safety and efficacy of aerosol medicines, are still underestimated.