Wednesday, 06 January 2010
In a paper published this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), scientists at the Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) have demonstrated for the first time that multipotent stem cells, able to give rise to all lung epithelial lineages, are present in the adult mouse lung.
The researchers are now aiming to use their approach to identify similar stem cell targets in the human lung in order to better understand how the potential of these resident stem cells can be harnessed to regenerate and repair the lung following injury or disease.
Damage to lung epithelium results in loss of respiratory function and increased susceptibility to airborne infections. Until recently researchers had not been able to prove the existence of stem cells in the lung epithelium which lines the airways to provide the surface for gas exchange and act as an essential barrier from contaminants in the air we breathe.
This paper identifies for the first time the existence of a rare population of multipotent stem cells with the capacity for self-renewal and the ability to become airway and alveolar epithelial cells in the laboratory. This discovery will provide a new avenue for development of successful corrective and regenerative therapies for chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which reduce the quality of life of hundreds of million of people and kill more than four million people world wide every year.
The lead author, Dr Jonathan McQualter joined Associate Professor Ivan Bertoncello’s group at the ASCC in 2007 as a post-doctoral research fellow as a holder of a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Peter Doherty Trainee Research Fellowship.
For more information contact the ASCC on +61 3 92711180
The paper can be found on the PNAS website (subscription may be required):
Evidence of an epithelial stem/progenitor cell hierarchy in the adult mouse lung.
Jonathan L. McQualter, Karen Yuen, Brenda Williams, and Ivan Bertoncello, PNAS published online before print January 4, 2010, doi:10.1073/pnas.0909207107