Establishment of the Contraction and Relaxation Effect System Based on RTCA of Airway Smooth Muscle Cells

In this study, RTCA (xCELLigence real-time cell analysis system) was used to establish a method to detect the contraction and relaxation effect of ASMCs (airway smooth muscle cells). ASMCs were inoculated into the E-plate of RTCA detection plate with different densities to monitor the dynamic growth curve, and the appropriate cell density was selected. Histamine was used to stimulate cell contraction and the IC50 (median inhibition concentration) of histamine was calculated. Based on appropriate histamine stimulation concentration, terbutaline was used to simulate the relaxation effect of cells, and the EC50 (median effective concentration) was calculated. The results showed that the density of ASMCs was 4 000 cells/well [the cell culture was within (16±4) h], which was in line with the requirements of subsequent experiments. The IC50 of histamine on ASMCs for 2 h was 8.07 mmol/L, so the contractile effect of ASMCs stimulated by histamine of 8 mmol/L was obvious. The EC50 of terbutaline on ASMCs 2 h was 8.08×10–8 mol/L. Based on the cell contraction model, significant relaxation effect of terbutaline was detected at the concentration of 10 μmol/L and 20 μmol/L (P<0.05). ASMCs contraction and relaxation effect can be effectively detected by RTCA, providing reference data and accurate detection method for respiratory diseases with ASMCs as the main research object.