Isolation of rat primary lung cells: characterization of an improved method.

Lungs from female Wistar rats were enzymatically digested by stepwise recirculating perfusion through the pulmonary artery with various enzymes. Lung tissue was micro-dissected, resuspended and the cells obtained were washed by centrifugation. The results showed that our primary rat lung cell culture exceeded the quality of other isolation methods with regard to cell yield and viability and that these lung cultures might be representative of the cell mixture found in the organ.