McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Chest. 2018 Apr;153(4):994-1003. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2017.07.021. Epub 2017 Aug 2.
The epithelial cells lining the mammalian lung are subjected to constant interaction with the external environment, necessitating robust regeneration strategies to deal with cell loss due to natural turnover or damage arising from inhaled agents or disease. Since lung epithelial function extends beyond respiratory gas exchange to include roles such as immune defense and mucociliary clearance, a diverse complement of epithelial cell types exists that are regionally distributed along the respiratory tree and extensive surface area of the alveolar interface. Although steady-state turnover of the epithelium appears to be relatively low in ideal situations, the vital role of the lung requires stem and progenitor cell populations that can promptly respond to the loss or damage of epithelial tissues. The identity and role of stem cell populations that carry out repair and replacement in the lung has begun to be clarified in recent years, led by cell lineage tracking experiments in the mouse lung, which have revealed a complex interplay of differentiation, transdifferentiation, and dedifferentiation between lung stem cells and functional respiratory cell populations. In this review article, we present the current understanding of the stem cell populations within the pulmonary epithelium and describe ongoing efforts to use these stem cell populations to generate models for exploring lung function and disease.
哺乳动物肺部的上皮细胞不断与外部环境相互作用，需要强大的再生策略来应对由于自然更替或吸入剂或疾病引起的细胞损失。由于肺上皮细胞的功能不仅限于呼吸气体交换，还包括免疫防御和黏液纤毛清除等作用，因此存在着多种上皮细胞类型，它们沿着呼吸道和肺泡界面的广泛表面积分布在不同的区域。尽管在理想情况下，上皮细胞的稳态更替似乎相对较低，但肺部的重要功能需要干细胞和祖细胞群体，以便能够迅速应对上皮组织的损失或损伤。近年来，通过对小鼠肺部的细胞谱系追踪实验，已经开始阐明执行肺部修复和替代功能的干细胞群体的身份和作用，这些实验揭示了肺干细胞和功能性呼吸细胞群体之间在分化、转分化和去分化之间的复杂相互作用。在这篇综述文章中，我们介绍了肺部上皮细胞内的干细胞群体的现有认识，并描述了正在利用这些干细胞群体来生成模型以探索肺功能和疾病的努力。
