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  • Title: Pulmonary epithelium.
    Author: Bishop AE, Polak JM.
    Journal: Methods Enzymol; 2006; 418():333-49. PubMed ID: 17141045.
    Abstract:
    Repair or regeneration of defective lung epithelium would be of great therapeutic potential. Cellular sources for such repair have long been searched for within the lung, but the identification and characterization of stem or progenitor cells have been hampered by the complexity and cellular heterogeneity of the organ. In recent years, various pulmonary cells have been identified that meet the criteria for stem cells but it remains to be seen how far manipulation of these tissue-specific cell pools can upregulate epithelial repair. The initial excitement that greeted the results of animal experiments showing cells of bone marrow origin in murine lung has been tempered by more recent data suggesting that the cells do not repair pulmonary epithelium. However, there are reports of engraftment of bone marrow-derived cells in human lung, albeit at a low level, so the administration of cell therapy via the circulation, for repair and/or gene delivery, needs further investigation. The potential of human embryonic stem cells to generate any cell, tissue, or organ on demand for tissue repair or replacement is promising to revolutionize the treatment of human disease. Although some headway has been made into making pulmonary epithelium from these stem cells, human embryonic stem cell technology is still in its infancy and many technical, safety, and ethical hurdles must be cleared before clinical trials can begin. This chapter focuses on the potential role of stem cells in future approaches to lung repair and regeneration.
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