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Cornell scientists find biochemical signal that allows mice to grow new lung tissue
EmaxHealth
A new finding about how lung tissue regenerates in mice could offer hope for millions of people living with respiratory disease such as COPD that occurs from environmental toxins and smoking.
Scientists have known mice can regenerate lung tissue. Now they’ve discovered biochemical signals that make that happen. The researchers believe the finding could be applied to humans.
Ronald G. Crystal, MD, a co-author of the study and professor of pulmonary and genetic medicine at Weill Cornell, said he envisions the day when patients with COPD could be treated using endothelial growth factors that come from lung blood vessels. Crystal, while chief of the Pulmonary Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in the 1980s, was involved in the development of augmentation therapy for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.
In the new study, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College say they have discovered how to “turn on” the signals needed to regenerate alveoli in the lungs – the small sacs in the lungs where oxygen exchange takes place.
n their studies, the scientists found regeneration of lung tissue starts in endothelial cells that line the blood vessels in the lungs.
“It is speculated, but not proven, that humans have the potential to regenerate their lung alveoli until they can’t anymore, due to smoking, cancer, or other extensive chronic damage,” says Rafii, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
“Our hope is to take these findings into the clinic and see if we can induce lung regeneration in patients who need it, such as those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).”
In their study, the scientists discovered molecular signals that regenerate liver and bone marrow that they call “angiocrine factors”. They found out the same factors can also regenerate lung tissue in mice, and possibly humans.
