A quantitative assay for the adhesion of alveolar type II cells: application to the study of epithelial-fibroblast interactions.

A quantitative assay for the adhesion of rat lung epithelial cells has been developed. Cells are adhered to 96 well tissue culture plates and quantitated by their reaction with monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratin in an enzyme linked assay. Using this technique we have shown that rat lung alveolar Type II cells preferentially adhere to a fibroblast monolayer. There was no preferential adhesion of epithelial cells to fibroblast secreted matrix or to the separate components of alveolar matrix.