I know many Influenza studies use HEK-293 and A549 cell lines instead of healthy lung cells since influenza infects the respiratory tract. Was just wondering the reason to this.
Here healthy lung cells mean the freshly isolated cells from lung? If that is the case the first hurdle is isolating and maintaining them. And it needs lives. However, with the cell-lines like HEK-293 and A549, it is easy to maintain and they are pretty robust with gene modifications, transfections or other drug treatments. With fresh lung cells, the cells may be sensitive to this kind of experiments.
And, It really depends on what people would like to study with Influenza infection.
If it is studying its replication and effects of inhibitors or gene regulation during the infection etc, the cell lines are better. But studying the virus or cell behavior during the infection needs fresh cells, which is much closer to the reality.
I hope this clarifies your query. Goodluck
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