Advances and Remaining Challenges in the Study of Influenza and Anthrax Infection in Lung Cell Culture

For over 30 years, immortalized lung cells have enabled researchers to elucidate lung-pathogen molecular interactions. However, over the last five years, numerous commercial companies are now providing affordable, ready-to-use primary lung cells for use in research laboratories. Despite advances in primary cell culture, studies using immortalized lung cells still dominate the recent scientific literature. In this review, we highlight recent influenza and anthrax studies using in vitro primary lung tissue models and how these models are providing better predictive outcomes for when extrapolated to in vivo observations. By focusing on one virus (influenza) and one bacterium (Bacillus anthracis), it is the intent that these primary lung cell culture observations may translate into more useful studies for other related viral and bacterial lung pathogens of interest.