Figure 7
Trans-epithelial electrical resistance measurement. Unit area resistance was measured at six different time points in (a) tracheal and (b) bronchial human and porcine ALI cultures. Both tracheal and bronchial cultures were characterized by an initial TEER increase in accordance with the differentiation process, although only human cells maintained elevated values. No significative differences were observed in tracheal cultured tissues between the two species (human vs porcine p-value = 0.06 at day 3, 0.21 at day 9, 0.51 at day 15, 0.051 at day 19). In bronchial cultured tissues, significative differences were observed only at days 9 and 15 (human vs porcine p-value = 0.014 at day 9, 0.047 at day 15), whereas no differences were detected in the other time-points (p-value = 0.06 at day 3 and 0.051 at day 19). Results are expressed as the mean ± SD of the unit area resistance (n = 3 for humans; n = 2 for porcine). Arrows highlight the two time points (days 22 and 27) where porcine epithelia lost structural integrity. Coherently, for these measurements the statistical analysis was not carried out. * = p < 0.05.
