Lung diseases in vitro

Researchers from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University (CReM) in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston (UTHealth) have successfully created basal airway stem cells in vitro from induced pluripotent stem cells by reprogramming blood cells taken from patients. Considering that the basal cells of the respiratory tract are essentially stem cells, since they can regenerate the epithelium of the respiratory tract when it is damaged, this study can accelerate the study of diseases of the respiratory system (COVID-19, influenza, bronchial asthma, cystic fibrosis and others).

Induced pluripotent stem cells can produce any cell or tissue in the human body. They are created by reprogramming cells from a sample taken from a patient, and, like embryonic stem cells, have the ability to form different types of cells inside organs.

The authors of the new study have developed methods for creating a population of basal stem cells of the respiratory tract in the laboratory. These cells support the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract.

For the first time, researchers have constructed induced pluripotent stem cells with a genetic sequence encoding a fluorescent protein that allows basal cells to be tracked and selected. Further, through a series of steps aimed at simulating the processes that occur during lung development, they successfully created cells very similar to the basal cells of the human respiratory tract in terms of their appearance, the genes they express, and, most importantly, their ability to reproduce and transform into other types of cells respiratory tract. The cells, called i-basal, were able to regenerate the airways in vivo on three animal models of the trachea. Xenografts have grown cells with the same diseases as donors.

In experiments, i-basal cells obtained from patients with various lung diseases could simulate respiratory tract diseases affecting these patients, including mucus metaplasia characteristic of bronchial asthma, chloride channel dysfunction causing cystic fibrosis, and cilia contraction defects leading to primary ciliary dyskinesia. From a practical point of view, i-basal cells are well cultured under special conditions in the laboratory, which allows them to be produced in large quantities. The basal cells of a particular patient can be grown and frozen for future work, as well as shared with the wider research community.

Article by F.J.Hawkins et al. The Derivation of Airway Basal Stem Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells is published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru Based on materials from Boston Medical: Researchers Create Human Airway Stem Cells from Patients' Cells, Advancing Regenerative Research for Lung Diseases.