Alveolar tissuegenesis and repair by airway delivery of donor type II epithelial cells

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 — Poster Session II
Noon – 2:00 p.m.	Natcher Conference Center	NICHD	STEMCELL-9

Authors

• PM Wang
• WJ Martin II

Abstract

Bleomycin causes acute lung injury. Alveolar type II epithelial (AT II) cells are the progenitor cells of the adult alveolar epithelium. We hypothesize that the donor AT II cells will repair bleomycin-injured lung. To address this, female adult mice (C57BL/6) received bleomycin (1.67 U/kg) intratracheally. We harvested AT II cells from healthy male murine lungs and airway delivered 10^6 donor cells into the recipient lungs at day 4 post-bleomycin. The control mice received vehicle alone after bleomycin. 3-weeks following bleomycin, the survival rate of bleomycin mice (n=20) treated with donor AT II cells was 80% as compared to 50% in control mice (P<0.05). We identified donor AT II cells pre-labeled with DiI and immunostained with anti-pro-SPC in lung cryosections by confocal imaging. Donor AT II cell continued to migrate from central airways to the peripheral lung 2 to 14 days following delivery. This finding was also confirmed by gradually increasing GFP expression in lung tissue after airway delivery of GFP-labeled donor AT II cells. This study suggests that donor AT II cells may act as effective repair cells for acute lung injury. This approach of using donor type II cells may be a promising alternative to reduce lung damage.

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