The Cell Culture and Physiology Core, designated as Core B, is a centralized facility that provides primary alveolar epithelial type 2 cells and secondary alveolar epithelial cell lines to each of the projects within the program project. Centralization of the cell culture facilities ensures that a continuous supply of high quality and purity alveolar epithelial cells is available to each of the projects. The Cell Culture Core B is responsible for the isolation and maintenance of primary cultures of rat and mouse alveolar epithelial type 2 and type 1 cells using standard techniques previously described by our group. The core will purchase and propagate human, rat and mouse alveolar epithelial cell lines. The purity of the cell cultures will be verified using a variety of immunological and functional assays. The cell culture facility personnel have extensive experience in the isolation of alveolar epithelial type 2 cells, as well as general cell culture techniques. The consolidation of the cell culture facilities will provide an economical means of isolating and culturing alveolar epithelial cells. 
Figure 1. Representative photomicrographs of primary rat alveolar type 2 cells. Primary rat alveolar epithelial type 2 cells (AT2) were isolated by Core B and plated onto coverslips. (A) Rat AT2 cells were immunostained for keratin, an epithelial cell marker, with antibodies against keratin 8 and 18 (RDI) and GAM Alexa 488 (Molecular Probes). (B) Phase-contrast image of AT2 cells depicted in Figure 1A. (C) Rat AT2 were immunostained for SP-C, a alveolar epithelial type 2 cell marker, with an antibody, anti-SPC (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) and GAR Alexa 568 (Molecular Probes). | 
