Mesenchyme-free expansion and transplantation of adult alveolar progenitor cells: steps toward cell-based regenerative therapies.

ABSTRACT: Alveolar type-2 (AT2) cells are necessary for the lung's regenerative response to epithelial insults such as influenza. However, current methods to expand these cells rely on mesenchymal co-culture, complicating the possibility of transplantation following acute injury. Here we developed several mesenchyme-free culture conditions that promote growth of murine AT2 organoids. Transplanting dissociated AT2 organoids into influenza-infected mice demonstrated that organoids engraft and either proliferate as AT2 cells or unexpectedly adopt a basal cell-like fate associated with maladaptive regeneration. Alternatively, transplanted primary AT2 cells also robustly engraft, maintaining their AT2 lineage while replenishing the alveolar type-1 (AT1) cell population in the epithelium. Importantly, pul

SUBMITTER: Weiner AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6702233 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature