Researchers have discovered new cell types that may affect human lung disease. read here

Scientists show that RASCs have stem cell-like properties that allow them to regenerate other cells essential for proper function of alveoli
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PHILADELPHIA — Researchers have discovered a new cell type that lives deep in the human lung, reports a research journal, Nature. Cytoplasmic clumps may affect lung disease in humans.

The researchers analyzed human lung tissue to identify new cells, which they called airway secretory cells (RASCs). These cells line the tiny airway branches deep in the lungs near the alveolar structures where oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide.

The scientists showed that RASCs have stem cell-like properties that allow them to regenerate other cells that are critical to the normal function of the alveoli. They also found evidence that cigarettes and a common disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) disrupt the regenerative function of RASCs—suggesting that correcting the disease could be a good way to treat COPD.

"COPD is a devastating common disease, but we don't really understand the cell biology of why or how some patients develop it. Identifying new cell types, especially new progenitor cells, that are damaged in COPD can really Accelerate the development of new treatments," said the study's lead author Maria Basil, MD, a pulmonary medicine educator.

COPD is usually characterized by progressive damage and loss of alveoli, with exacerbation of chronic inflammation. It is estimated to affect about 10 percent of people in some parts of the United States and cause about 3 million cases globally each year.

Patients often receive anti-inflammatory steroids and/or oxygen therapy, but these treatments only slow rather than stop or reverse the disease process. The understanding of COPD has been progressive, in part because the lungs of mice -- the standard laboratory animals -- lack key features of human lungs.

In the new study, Morrissey and his team found evidence of RASC when examining the signature of gene activity in lung cells taken from healthy human donors. They quickly realized that the RASCs, not found in the mouse lungs, were "secretory" cells that sit near the alveoli and produce proteins needed for the fluid lining of the airways.

"Studies like this allow us to understand at the cellular biology level what is really going on in this widespread disease," said senior author Edward Morrisey, PhD, Robinette Foundation Professor of Medicine in Cell and Developmental Biology and Director of the University of Pennsylvania Say. Institute of Lung Biology