Lung stem and progenitor cells are instructed to produce lineage-specific progeny that are regulated by unknown factors in their microenvironment.  Researchers use murine genetic models to identify the functional roles of critical stromal cell populations that control endogenous lung stem and progenitor cell populations, as well as to identify the key signaling pathways that operate between epithelial and stromal cells in vivo.

Recently, ex-vivo organoid co-culture systems have been developed, which allow researchers to govern the lineage specification of epithelial stem/progenitor cells, and discover a new regulatory signaling pathway (BMP4-calcineurin/NFATc1-TSP1) that operates between damaged epithelial cells and endothelial cells to derive the alveolar lineage specification of distal lung stem cells-  bronchioalveolar stem cells (BASCs).

This webinar reviews:

• Lung organoid co-culture system as the modelling of cell-cell interactions
• Crosstalk between stromal/niche cells and lung stem/progenitor cells for lineage specification
• The future of lung stem cell-mediated epithelial homeostasis and related pulmonary disease research