Department of Medicine V, Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, Universities of Giessen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
Cardio-Pulmonary Institute (CPI), Giessen, Germany.
J Clin Invest. 2023 Jul 17;133(14):e170498. doi: 10.1172/JCI170498.
Mesenchymal cells are uniquely located at the interface between the epithelial lining and the stroma, allowing them to act as a signaling hub among diverse cellular compartments of the lung. During embryonic and postnatal lung development, mesenchyme-derived signals instruct epithelial budding, branching morphogenesis, and subsequent structural and functional maturation. Later during adult life, the mesenchyme plays divergent roles wherein its balanced activation promotes epithelial repair after injury while its aberrant activation can lead to pathological remodeling and fibrosis that are associated with multiple chronic pulmonary diseases, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this Review, we discuss the involvement of the lung mesenchyme in various morphogenic, neomorphogenic, and dysmorphogenic aspects of lung biology and health, with special emphasis on lung fibroblast subsets and smooth muscle cells, intercellular communication, and intrinsic mesenchymal mechanisms that drive such physiological and pathophysiological events throughout development, homeostasis, injury repair, regeneration, and aging.
间质细胞位于上皮衬里和基质之间的独特位置，使它们能够充当肺内不同细胞区室之间的信号枢纽。在胚胎和出生后肺发育过程中，间充质衍生的信号指导上皮芽生、分支形态发生以及随后的结构和功能成熟。在成年后期，间充质发挥不同的作用，其平衡激活促进损伤后的上皮修复，而其异常激活可导致与多种慢性肺部疾病相关的病理性重塑和纤维化，包括支气管肺发育不良、特发性肺纤维化和慢性阻塞性肺疾病。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了肺间质在肺生物学和健康的各种形态发生、新生和畸形发生方面的作用，特别强调了肺成纤维细胞亚群和平滑肌细胞、细胞间通讯以及内在的间质机制，这些机制在整个发育、稳态、损伤修复、再生和衰老过程中驱动着这些生理和病理生理事件。
