2.6.1. Cell Culture

In this study, an immortalized normal bronchial epithelial cell line (16-HBE) was used (furnished by Istituto Zoo-profilattico of Lombardia and Emilia Romagna). 16-HBE cells were maintained in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air at 37 ◦C, cultured as adherent monolayers in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) (EuroClone), supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Gibco), 2 mM l-glutamine (EuroClone), 100 U/mL penicillin, 100 g/mL streptomycin, and 0.6 g/mL amphotericin B (Sigma–Aldrich, Milan, Italy).
