ENA0000GenomicsScientific Development Group, ECACC, Public Health Englandhttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJNA349020Homo sapiensPulmonary research requires models that represent the physiology of alveolar epithelium but concerns with reproducibility, consistency and the technical and ethical challenges of using primary or stem cells has resulted in widespread use of continuous cancer or other immortalized cell lines. The A549 ‘alveolar’ cell line has been available for over four decades but there is an inconsistent view as to its suitability as an appropriate model for primary alveolar type II (ATII) cells. Since most work with A549 cells involves short term culture of proliferating cells, we postulated that culture conditions that reduced proliferation of the cancer cells would promote a more differentiated ATII cell phenotype. We examined A549 cell growth in different media over long term culture and then used microarray analysis to investigate temporal regulation of pathways involved in cell cycle and ATII differentiation; we also made comparisons with gene expression in freshly isolated human ATII cells. Analyses indicated that long term culture in Ham’s F12 resulted in substantial modulation of cell cycle genes to result in a quiescent population of cells with significant up-regulation of autophagic, differentiation and lipidogenic pathways. There were also increased numbers of up- and down-regulated genes shared with primary cells suggesting adoption of ATII characteristics and multilamellar body (MLB) development. Subsequent Oil Red-O staining and Transmission Electron Microscopy confirmed MLB expression in the differentiated A549 cells. This work defines a set of conditions for promoting ATII differentiation characteristics in A549 cells that may be advantageous for studies with this cell line. Overall design: The A549 Cell Line was maintained in long term culture in Ham's F12 medium with 10% Foetal Bovine Serum for 25 days in triplicate in order to drive differentation towards an alveolar type II differentated state. Cells were harvested at T0 (log phase), day 7, 11, 18 and 25 to evaluate their gene expression over the differentation period.ENABeliefs, A549, great alveolar cell, Effects, ATII, Longterm., Cell Lines, Longterm Effect, A4, A549 Cell Line, Cultural Backgrounds, lung type II cell, type II alveolar epithelial cell, RCB0098, Cell, A549 Cell Lines, TYPE, Long Term, LGMD2C, Belief, DAGA4, type II alveolar cell, period, Background, Cultural Background, Cultures, cuboidal type II cell, lung type 2 cell, Cultural, Long Term Effects, MAM, SCG3, Effect, Backgrounds, A549 Cell, type 2 alveolar epithelial cell, ethnicity, A-549, DMDA1, Longterm, long, type 2 alveolocyte, Cultural Relativisms, granular pneumocyte, type II alveolocyte, Long-Term, Longterm Effects, AT2, Cell Line, Phenotypes, DMDA, Cells, SCARMD2, Customs, A549 cell, Relativisms, Long-Term Effect, TII, culture, Relativism, Cultural Relativism, time, Long-Term Effects, type 2 pneumocytehuman being, human., man0.00.00.00.00.00falseHomo sapiensLong Term Culture of the A549 Cell Line Promotes Differentiation Towards an Alveolar Type II (ATII) Phenotype; A549 Time course.2022-05-122016-10-20PRJNA349020GSE888799606