Tissue collection and preparation
Regions of lungs were taken from uninvolved areas of neoplastic lesions
and resected from 16 patients undergoing lobectomy surgery for lung
cancer. Tissues were placed in Krebs-Henseleit buffer solution (KH) as
previously described (Cazzola et al., 2011) and transported to the
Laboratory of Respiratory Clinical Pharmacology at the University of
Rome “Tor Vergata” (Italy) from a nearby hospital. None of the
patients had been chronically treated with bronchodilators or
corticosteroids, and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were in the
normal range (<100 IU/ml). Preoperative lung function
parameters were normal in all the patients who were not affected by
chronic obstructive respiratory disorders. Detailed demographic and
metric characteristics of donors are reported in e-Table 1.
In the laboratory, the airways were cut into rings (subsegmental
bronchi: thickness 1-2 mm, diameter 4-6 mm) and transferred into a 10-ml
High Tech 8 Channels Manual Compact Organ Bath system (Panlab Harvard
Apparatus, Spain) containing KH buffer solution (37°C) and aerated with
O2/CO2 (95:5%). Tissues were allowed to
equilibrate and the KH buffer solution was constantly changed.