Within the Lung Research Group, Rückoldt and her colleagues focus on developing a 3D culture system for primary alveolar type II (AT2) cells—a promising model for investigating cellular mechanisms of lung injury and regeneration.

The regeneration of lung tissue after damage represents a key research area in translational pulmonary medicine. Alveolar epithelial type II cells (AT2 cells) play a central role in this process. Although rare, they are functionally essential: they serve not only as progenitors for the widespread type I alveolar cells (AT1) but also contribute to lung homeostasis and repair through their secretory and immunoregulatory functions.

For her work on the isolation and characterization of healthy human primary AT2 cells, Julia Rückoldt was honored with a poster prize at the DZL Annual Meeting 2025. Together with Dr. Lara-Jasmin Schröder, she is working on the establishment of a robust, cell line-free 3D culture system that allows for ex vivo cultivation and functional analysis of these cells.

The research team successfully isolated AT2 cells from fresh, healthy human lung tissue using a magnetic cell separation technique (HT-II-280 MACS). Immediately after isolation, the cells were identified as a pure AT2 cell population by flow cytometry based on specific markers—particularly HT-II-280 and pro-surfactant protein C (pro-SPC). The cells were then successfully cultured as organoids in 3D and thoroughly characterized using morphological assessment, immunofluorescence, and cryosections.

The establishment of this model enables targeted stimulation experiments and functional assays to study pulmonary injury and regeneration mechanisms under standardized conditions. Future work will focus on expanding marker analysis to larger cohorts and optimizing cell stability for long-term applications in basic and translational research.

Text: BREATH/AB & JR

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