Lung diseases can be debilitating, making both scientific leader and patients interested in exploring stem cell treatments for lungs an potential treatment approach. Find out all you need to know about stem cell therapy for lungs, including risks, benefits, clinical trial progress and more.
A Look At Stem Cell Treatments For Lungs
In this article:
- Progression of Treatments for Lung Diseases
- Where Do Stem Cells for Lungs Come From?
- How Do Scientists and Physicians Harvest and Use These Cells?
- Risks of Stem Cell Treatments for Lungs
- Benefits of Stem Cell Treatments for Lungs
- Lung Stem Cell Clinical Trials
Progression of Treatments for Lung Diseases
Historically, those with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, also known as COPD or lung disease, had only a matter of time before they succumbed to symptoms. These include wheezing, chest tightness, mucus in the lungs and death. The same is true for lung cancer, which kills hundreds of thousands each year (an estimated 154,050 deaths in 2018, according to the American Cancer Society).
Recently, though, a beacon has broken through the fog. Stem cell treatments for lungs show serious promise for treating lung diseases, especially COPD and non-small cell lung cancer (which does not metastasize nearly as quickly as small cell lung cancer). Mounting research shows that stem cells can also make a difference in pulmonary fibrosis.
The new treatments leave many with questions, however. Where do these stem cells come from, for one thing? How do physicians use them to repair lung tissue? What are the risks and benefits? And lastly, what can one do to join clinical trials?
The following will attempt to illuminate each of these questions in turn so that those with lung diseases or their loved ones have all the necessary information to make the right choice for future treatments.
Where Do Stem Cells for Lungs Come From?
While most people associate stem cells with unborn fetuses, the adult human body actually provides many rich sources of stem cells. They exist in the blood, muscles, skin, liver, brain, bone marrow and even teeth.
Some of these stem cells are very flexible. Hematopoietic stem cells, for instance, can turn into any type of blood cell, including white blood cells and other specialty versions. Mesenchymal stem cells are a type of multipotent stromal cells. This means they can turn into many different types as well. Specifically, they can transform into muscle cells, bone cells, fat cells, and cartilage cells.
Adult stem cells that can transform into lungs have posed notable trouble to researchers and physicians, however. Not only do lung cells turn over slowly – making the lungs hard to heal – but they are difficult to find. Now, new studies have demonstrated that lungs actually do contain several populations of lung stem cells.
According to the National Institutes of Health, researchers have identified a new type of stem cell. The said stem cell produces new critical ways to the proper function of alveoli or air sacs. They inflate and deflate, allowing the lung to exchange gas.
Another example of lung stem cells is the c-kit-positive lung stem cell. Progenitor cells, which are like stem cells in that they can give rise to multiple types of a cell but are much more niche in their production, are also abundant and can contribute to treatment.
The most promising lung stem cells are called alveolar epithelial progenitor (AEP) cells. They are relatively easy to isolate from adult lungs via the use of a surface marker, which attaches to only that type of cell. Once detected and harvested, physicians can use them to develop new needed stem cells.
How Do Scientists and Physicians Harvest and Use These Cells?
Once physicians have stem cells in hand, they can inject them into the patient easily. Once inside, they will theoretically – if all goes well – repopulate inside the patient’s body, replacing the damaged cells. In vivo studies of mice have so far proved promising, showing that injected stem cells do indeed “take” and work to replace damaged tissue.
Scientists even demonstrated that human stem cells will take root inside mice, showing their potential omnipotence. The most promising outcome of this study was that stem cells do more than simply replace tissue in damaged structures. They actually create new air pathways
This is huge news for patients with severely damaged lungs, where some structures might turn out resistant to repair. Knowing the mechanisms, most potential stem cell patients are likely curious what the risks and benefits are. Is stem cell-based treatment really a viable option, and if so, what must the patient take into account before proceeding?
Risks of Stem Cell Treatments for Lungs
Despite the huge promise of this type of regenerative medicine, there do exist several risks for stem cell treatments. First and foremost, there is the issue of whom stem cells come from. In many cases, it is possible to harvest and reinject stem cells from the patient’s own body.
Researchers collect the cells, isolate them, encourage their proliferation and then reinject them back into the host. Ideally, they then start to repopulate inside the patient, repairing damaged tissue and healing the organ. However, in some cases, this isn’t possible. For instance, if the patient’s own cells are too destroyed, they may not have the capability to proliferate. Similarly, if a patient has serious cancer, their stem cells carry the risk of reintroducing cancer after radiation and chemotherapy have otherwise destroyed it.
If using stem cells belonging to a patient is not an option, they may receive them from a donor. This too is a difficult prospect, though. Here are the basic tests on donor stem cells, but that doesn’t guarantee that any stem cell will take. The donor must have the same blood type. After that is established, doctors must still conduct other types of test to ensure compatibility. Even then, compatibility is still no guarantee of effectiveness.
Graft-versus-host disease is the most serious of these. Once physicians introduce the cells to the patient’s body, those cells may act as though the host (patient) is an invader. They may attack it just the way it would attack viruses or toxins in the donor’s body. In the lungs, the two most common noninfectious problems (i.e. not related to bacterial complications) are Bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome and bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia. The first is classed as a type of graft-versus-host disease and can cause issues such as diarrhea, skin rashes, liver damage, and even death.
Benefits of Stem Cell Treatments for Lungs
Lest readers get the impression that the news is all bad, it’s important to convey the good news as well. Lung stem cell transplants, quite simply, are one of the most miraculous discoveries in the history of lung treatment. Doctors now have a formidable weapon in the form of formerly deadly diseases. By inserting healthy stem cells in the body, patients not only receive healing potential for their current disease, but a renewed capacity to fight new infections, wounds, and other traumas.
In addition to COPD, lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis, lung stem cells may also aid in the fight against cystic fibrosis. Plus, other research hints that researchers may also develop stem cells that can heal lungs from fat tissue. This would help greatly. It would mean patients could use their own stem cells from non-damaged, non-cancerous parts of the body.
Lung Stem Cell Clinical Trials
Lung stem cell clinical trials have begun in the form of an autologous lung stem cell transplantation in China. It may take some time for those trials to come to the United States and other countries, but it is a momentous first step. Patients hoping to benefit from such studies should speak with physicians ASAP to assure themselves the best chance of a shot at similar opportunities.
Understand how stem cell treatments for lungs work with this illustrated video from Cheng Lab:
Overall, the research related to lung stem cells is extremely promising, and can only get better. Those struggling with lung disease, or who have loved ones who are, should keep the hope alive for now.
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