Lung regeneration: mechanisms, applications and emerging stem cell populations

DN Kotton, EE Morrisey - Nature medicine, 2014 - nature.com
DN Kotton, EE Morrisey
Nature medicine, 2014nature.com
Recent studies have shown that the respiratory system has an extensive ability to respond to
injury and regenerate lost or damaged cells. The unperturbed adult lung is remarkably
quiescent, but after insult or injury progenitor populations can be activated or remaining cells
can re-enter the cell cycle. Techniques including cell-lineage tracing and transcriptome
analysis have provided novel and exciting insights into how the lungs and trachea
regenerate in response to injury and have allowed the identification of pathways important in …
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that the respiratory system has an extensive ability to respond to injury and regenerate lost or damaged cells. The unperturbed adult lung is remarkably quiescent, but after insult or injury progenitor populations can be activated or remaining cells can re-enter the cell cycle. Techniques including cell-lineage tracing and transcriptome analysis have provided novel and exciting insights into how the lungs and trachea regenerate in response to injury and have allowed the identification of pathways important in lung development and regeneration. These studies are now informing approaches for modulating the pathways that may promote endogenous regeneration as well as the generation of exogenous lung cell lineages from pluripotent stem cells. The emerging advances, highlighted in this Review, are providing new techniques and assays for basic mechanistic studies as well as generating new model systems for human disease and strategies for cell replacement.
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