Long-term culture of porcine esophageal epithelial cells without use of feeder layers

Epithelial cells from normal pig esophagus survived in culture for about 4 months undergoing about 12 passages and nearly 40 doublings before showing signs of slow proliferation and senescence. Epithelial cells did not show any attachment and proliferation in serum free media, compared to cells supplemented with 10% serum, where the doubling time was between 48 and 60h. Fibroblasts never became the prominent cell type in these cultures at any given time point. The epithelial cells reacted with antibodies to keratin AE1/AE3, keratin 14 and to involucrin, the differentiating marker.