Trigger Discovered Inside Blood Vessels of the Lung for lung regeneration

Trigger Discovered Inside Blood Vessels of the Lung for lung regeneration



A molecular trigger involved in lung regeneration has been uncovered. Investigators--including Dr. Ronald G. Crystal (Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) and Dr. Shahin Rafii (Professor of Medicine/Medicine & Genetics)-- have published their findings in Cell. The discovery is part of a labyrinth of advances toward a fuller understanding of the process of lung regeneration.

Lead investigator, Dr. Rafii (Arthur B. Belfer Professor of Genetic Medicine & Co-Director of WCMC’s Ansary Stem Cell Institute), explains that the pathways involved in the regeneration of liver and of bone marrow can be monitored readily, but it is “much more cumbersome” to study the process in adult organs such as the lung or heart. Using a mouse model, the investigators uncovered growth factor signals that trigger – or “turn on”-the generation of new lung alveoli. Lung alveoli are the numerous, tiny sacs within the lung where oxygen exchange takes place during inhalation and exhalation. The regeneration process the researchers have defined in the journal Cell involves specialized cells (known as endothelial cells), which line the interior of blood vessels in the lung: These endothelial cells--by producing specific growth factors know as angiocrine factors--trigger and sustain the generation of new lung alveoli.

It has been long-known that when a mouse is missing one of its lungs, the remaining lung has the capacity to expand and regenerate. It is speculated that humans may have the same potential, unless, or until, prevented by smoking, cancer, or other extensive chronic damage. Dr. Crystal, co-author of the study, notes there is no effective therapy for patients with COPD. “Based on this study,” he says, “I envision a day when patients with COPD and other chronic lung disease may benefit from treatment with factors derived from lung blood vessels that induce lung regeneration.”


see the news release on on lung regeneration at Cornell University