Study on Respiratory Acinus of the Lung and Their Somatic Stem Cells

Abstract: The lung is one of the most important organs which connect to the environment. The environmental adverse factors， such as pathogenic microorganisms and carcinogens， can directly injure the respiratory epithelium， and the lung stem cells or their progenitor cells along with the respiratory epithelium assume the respiratory capacity for the injury. The basic structure unit of respiratory system is respiratory acinus. The surface area of the units constitutes of more than 99% of the total area of the respiratory system， so the respiratory acinus has an increased risk to develop respiratory diseases， especially malignant tumors. Evidence showed that， in the embryonic development of the lung， respiratory acinus originates from the distal stem cells which predominantly locate in the epithelium of bronchiole and the bronchioalveolar duct junction. Their malignant transformation represents a key mechanism for lung carcinogenesis. Because of this， exploring the biological characters of lung stem cells in the respiratory acinus can help to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the oncogenesis in the lung and， therefore， facilitate to detect lung cancer at early stages and to develop potential targets for its prevention and treatment.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2011.02.0009