Establishment of a porcine bronchial epithelial cell line and its application to study innate immunity in the respiratory epithelium.

culture models that precisely mirror the porcine respiratory epithelium are needed to gain insight into how pathogens and host interact. In this study, a new porcine bronchial epithelial cell line, designated as PBE cells, was established from the respiratory tract of a neonatal pig. PBE cells assumed a cobblestone-epithelial like morphology with close contacts between the cells when they reached confluence.