MucilAir is a novel in vitro cell model of human respiratory epithelium which has the following characteristics:

1. It has a shelf-life of one year, while most primary human cell models that are produced nowadays have a shelf-life of only a few days. This feature of our product enables our customers to develop a variety of applications, especially the long term studies.
    
   
2. Morphologically and functionally, the product resembles the native tissue of the human respiratory tracts and thus permits to obtain more reliable experimental results.
   
   
3. Very resistant, this cell model is and can be stored at room-temperature for several days, and does not suffer from shipment. This facillitates greatly the everyday and large scale use of the model.
   
   
4. Reconstitute epithelia which can reproduce certain patho-physiological phenotypes of the disease. It is possible, by using the biopsies from the patients suffering from genetic diseases such as the Cystic fibrosis to reconstitute epithelia. These in vitro cell models are not only valuable for the academic reseach, but also for the discovery, the screening and the validation of new specific therapeutic drugs.
   

Schematic representation of MucilAir

Pré-différenciated epithelium

1,5 month of culturing Appearing of ciliated, mucus and basal cells Establishment of absoption / secretion properties Stabilisation of electrophysiological properties

Fully différenciated epithelium

Ciliogenesis during MucilAir differentiation

Immunostaining of cilia with an anti-beta-tubulin antibody on 21, 30, 45 and 60 days old epithelia.

Labeling of actin (revealed with fluorescent phalloïdin) on MucilAir

Labeling of a 30 days old epithelium with phalloïdin (objective x10).	Labeling of a 30 days old epithelium with phalloïdin (objective x20).	Immunolabeling of a 30 days old epithelium with phalloïdin and an antibody directed against beta-tubulin (confocal microscopy)

Videomicroscopy movies on a 3 months old MucilAir (6 seconds in movies = 1 hours of real time)

	In this movie, the beating of cilia is clearly visible at the apical surface of MucilAir. This beating induces the movement of the particles trapped in the mucus. See the movie (3,64 Mo)
	In this movie, MucilAir was filmed during 5 hours at room temperature out of the incubator. There is no visible change of the MucilAir structure with time. See the movie (11,4 Mo)
	In this movie, MucilAir was filmed during 12 hours at room temperature out of the incubator. In spite of these drastic conditions, the epithelium maintained its integrity and remained functional. See the movie (27,3 Mo)
	In this movie, MucilAir was filmed during 21 hours at room temperature out of the incubator in the presence of 1 mM of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid (ALA). When exposed to the light, this molecule generated free radicals in the cells. It is often used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of acnea, cancer, etc. The illumination of MucilAir in the presence of ALA induced a clearly visible alteration and damages of the structure after 4-5 hours (24-30 s). See the movie (47.3 Mo)