Stem cell lungs: the first step has been taken
Lung tissue was grown from human stem cells for the first time
Medical news from Columbia University Medical Center: Human Stem Cells Converted to Functional Lung CellsFor the first time, scientists from Columbia University Medical Center have managed to obtain functioning lung and respiratory tract cells from human stem cells, which has great potential for modeling lung diseases, screening experimental drugs and creating lung tissue for transplantation.
The results of the study, conducted in vitro and in vivo (on a mouse model), were published on November 30 in the journal Nature Biotechnology (Huang et al., Efficient generation of lung and airway epithelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells).
"Researchers have already made progress in obtaining heart, intestinal, liver, pancreatic beta cells and nerve cells from human stem cells, thereby increasing the possibilities of regenerative medicine," said Hans-Willem Snoeck, professor of medicine and lead author of the work. "Now we have finally been able to obtain lung and respiratory tract cells, which is also important, since transplantation of donor lungs has serious risks."
This study is based on data from 2011, when Dr. Snack and his colleagues discovered chemical factors that can transform embryonic (ESCs) and induced pluripotent human stem cells (iPSCs) into cells of the endoderm of the anterior intestine, from which lung tissue and respiratory tract epithelium develop during intrauterine development.
In this study, scientists were able to discover new cell growth and differentiation factors that were able to complete the transformation of ESCs and iPSCs into functioning epithelial cells covering the surface of the lungs.
According to the results of the study, the cells obtained by scientists expressed at least six markers of epithelial cells of the lungs and respiratory tract, including markers of alveolocytes (alveolar epithelial cells) of type II. These cells produce a surfactant – a mixture of surfactants in the alveoli, which prevents them from falling off (sticking together) by reducing the surface tension of the liquid.
These data, according to the authors, are of great importance for the study of lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
"In the long term, we hope to use this technology to create an autologous lung transplant," Dr. Snack said. "The lung removed from the donor is planned to be "washed" from all cells so that only the cell skeleton remains in the end, and then the lung tissue cells obtained from the patient using the developed technology are planted on it. Thus, it will be possible to avoid a graft rejection reaction."
A diagram from the popular presentation of the results of work on the site Phys.org:
Human stem cells converted to functional lung cells – VM.
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