Ordering

How to order?

Please preferably write an e-mail to epithelix@epithelix.com in order to specify your request, ask for a quote or for availabilities. We can send you an official quotation with delivery timeline.
Please provide an official Purchase Order with correct information regarding delivery and billing addresses since this information will be used in the process.

How are the tissues shipped?

Our tissues are shipped within nutritive gels in a standard 24 well plate, packaged into an isotherm box with heat blocks (temperature regulated container). They tolerate up to 5 days in these conditions. We strongly advise our customers to let the cells into culture 2 to 3 days upon arrival. Do never stock the tissues at low temperature!

What about stock and availabilities?

Most of the requested products are weekly reconstituted: MucilAir™ Bronchial and Nasal as well as MucilAir-Pool™ (Nasal). Those products should be readily available. However, in any case, please ask for availabilities! Some of our products are only available on request (example: SmallAir™-CF or MucilAir-CF™): a 6 weeks deadline is at least to be expected for the reconstitution process before shipment. Large quantity orders should be anticipated as well.

How long does it take to receive my order?

We routinely proceed to the shipment of our products on Mondays. Please note that the order has to be confirmed on the previous Thursday, 4 p.m. Shipments to Europe or Switzerland take in average 1 day.
For other destinations (USA, Asia…) the shipment average time is of 2 days.

Do you offer free test samples for new customers?

Yes.

Epithelix's tissues

What is MucilAir™?

MucilAir™ is an in vitro 3D epithelium of the human upper respiratory tract made of primary low passage cells cultured at the air liquid interface. The primary cells are passage 1 (cells have been plated in cell culture vessel after isolation and then enzymatically removed for cryopreservation).
The tissues are reconstituted and sold on a microporous filter (diameter = 6.5 mm, porosity = 1 µm), in an insert of  6.5 mm diameter.

MucilAir™ is available from different anatomical regions of the upper respiratory tract (nose, trachea and bronchi)

The MucilAir™ model has 3 cell types: basal cells, goblet (or mucus) cells and ciliated cells. Each epithelium contains approximately 500,000 cells.

What is SmallAir?

SmallAir™ is an in vitro 3D epithelium of the human lower respiratory tract (bronchiolar region) made of primary low passage cells cultured at the air liquid interface.
This model has 3 main cell types: basal cells, ciliated cells, and, in contrast to MucilAir™, contains a large proportion of club cells and very few goblet cells.

What are the advantages of MucilAir and SmallAir™ models?

  • Made of low passage cells
  • Nasal, bronchial, tracheal or Bronchiolar versions available
  • Single donor or pool of donors versions available
  • Batch-to-batch reproducibility
  • Mimics the in vivo tissue (air-liquid interface, mucus, ciliated cells)
  • Long shelf-life (up to one year)
  • Easy and ready to use
  • Several pathological versions available
  • Ethically beneficial by limiting animal experimentation

What are the different versions of MucilAir™ and SmallAir™ commercially available?

Our epithelia can be obtained from cells of healthy patients, but also from patients with various pathologies. The current versions of MucilAir™ and SmallAir™ can be available for the following pathologies:

  • Asthma
  • COPD
  • Smoker
  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Allergic Rhinitis

Additionally, all these versions of MucilAir™ and SmallAir™ are available in co-culture with primary human fibroblasts (MucilAir™-HF and SmallAir™-HF respectively).

How do you guarantee the quality of your products?

Before shipment, our products go through a strict quality control process. We use the following measures to determine whether the product meets our standards:

  • Cilia Beating Frequency
  • Tightness of the epithelium (checking of the Trans Epithelial Electrical Resistance)
  • Presence of mucus
  • Morphology
  • Tested negative for HIV-1, mycoplasma, hepatitis-B, hepatitis-C, bacteria, yeast and fungi

What are the possible applications?

The MucilAir™ and SmallAir™ models have multiple applications. To this day, it has been used for the following tests:

  • Inflammatory reactions
  • Muco-ciliary clearance
  • Acute or chronic toxicity
  • Ion channels (ussing chambers)
  • Mucin assay
  • Irritation
  • Nanotoxicity
  • Carcinogenesis
  • Bioaccumulation
  • Trans-epithelial transport
  • Histology
  • Transcriptomics
  • Permeability
  • Bacterial or Viral infections

I would like to run tests with MucilAir™ but I am not sure of the best strategy to adopt?

You can get in touch with our team to discuss your issue(s). We can also provide you with protocols designed by Epithelix. Alternatively, as part of a contract research organization, we can offer you to conduct the tests in our laboratories if you would like to benefit from our expertise on MucilAir.

Is there a specific medium needed in order to maintain MucilAir™ in culture?

Epithelix has developed an ideal medium for maintaining MucilAir™ in culture: MucilAir™ Culture Medium. This medium is chemically defined, serum free, and ready to use. The average need per insert for one month of culture is estimated to 5.6 mL. Culture medium needs to be changed twice a week. The volume per well is 700 μL.

Our culture medium is available in 125 mL and 500 mL bottles. As for the media’s validity period, if bottles are kept at +4°C in the dark, we guarantee the media’s quality for 6 months after reception or 3 months after opening, whichever happens first.

Example:

Reception date Storage condition Opening date End of validity
January Dark, +4°C - June
January Dark, +4°C January March
January Dark, +4°C March May
January Dark, +4°C May June
 

How do you obtain the cells?

Cells are collected from patients undergoing surgeries. After obtaining their consent and instead of destroying the surgical waste, we collect samples of interest. Patients contribute to the reduction of animal experimentation by donating their cells.

Other products

What are the other products sold by Epithelix?

Epithelix can also provide the following products :

  • Frozen Human Airway Epithelial low passage Cells from different origin (nasal, tracheal. bronchial, bronchiolar and alveolar).
  • Human Fibroblasts.
  • Serum free and chemically stable culture medium dedicated for the 2D culture of primary cells.
  • Tissue extracts from MucilAir™: Mucus, total RNA, protein lysate.

What are the characteristics of your hAEC cells?

The cells are low passage (P1). They can be passaged up to 4 times if your goal is to use them for Air Liquid Interface. For flask cultures, they can be passaged up to 6 times. Our cells have a very good proliferation and differentiation capacities.

Cells are supplied in a cryogenic vial containing more than 1'000'000 viable cells in a volume of 1 mL of freezing medium. The vials with cryo-conserved cells are shipped on dry-ice. Upon arrival, the cells must be taken out and transferred to a storage facility with liquid nitrogen (-196 °C).