Growth Requirements of Ferret Tracheal Epithelial Cells in Primary Culture

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Abstract
In mass cell culture conditions, protease dissociated ferret tracheal epithelial cells (FTE) proliferated in growth factor-supplemented F12 medium to high cell densities (0.5 .times. 105 cells/cm2) with an average population doubling time of 24 h. The growth factor constituents of the F12 medium included epidermal growth factor (25 ng/ml), insulin (1 .mu.g/ml), transferrin (10 .mu.g/ml), hydrocortisone (18 ng/ml), hypothalamus extract (30-100 .mu.g/ml) and conditioned medium from mouse 3T3 fibroblasts. Growth of these cells under clonal conditions was achieved by the partial replacement of F12 medium with M199 medium which was attributed, in part, to the presence of vitamin A in M199 medium. Serum did not stimulate the growth of FTE cells. The epithelial cell nature of these cells in culture was confirmed by ultrastructural features and by immunofluorescent staining for fibronectin.