Regeneration of the lung alveolus by an evolutionarily conserved epithelial progenitor.

ABSTRACT: Functional tissue regeneration is required for the restoration of normal organ homeostasis after severe injury. Some organs, such as the intestine, harbour active stem cells throughout homeostasis and regeneration; more quiescent organs, such as the lung, often contain facultative progenitor cells that are recruited after injury to participate in regeneration. Here we show that a Wnt-responsive alveolar epithelial progenitor (AEP) lineage within the alveolar type 2 cell population acts as a major facultative progenitor cell in the distal lung. AEPs are a stable lineage during alveolar homeostasis but expand rapidly to regenerate a large proportion of the alveolar epithelium after acute lung injury. AEPs exhibit a distinct transcriptome, epigenome and functional phenotype and respond specif

SUBMITTER: Zacharias WJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6020060 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature