The results were published in Cell, one of the world's most authoritative academic journals
At 23:00 on April 4, Beijing time, Cell, one of the most authoritative academic journals in the world, published online in the form of a Research Article, "Tracing the origin of alveolar", the latest work of Zhou Bin's research group at the School of Life and Health Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "School of Life Sciences") of the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study of UCAS (hereinafter referred to as "Hangzhou High Institute") and the Center for Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science (hereinafter referred to as the "Center of Excellence in Molecular and Cell") of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Center of Excellence in Molecular Cells"). stem cells in lung repair and regeneration”。
Ranked alongside Nature and Science, Cell is one of the world's most authoritative academic journals, publishing the latest research findings in the field of life sciences.
This research has developed a series of new cell tracing technologies, discovered the regenerative origin of neonatal alveolar epithelial stem cells in adult lungs, provided new technologies and methods for the field of lung regeneration and repair, and provided new therapeutic targets and important research bases for the clinical treatment of lung diseases.
The lungs are important respiratory organs in humans, and the alveolar epithelium is an important functional area for humans. In many lung diseases, once the alveoli are damaged, "new" alveolar epithelial stem cells are needed to repair them. Therefore, finding the regenerative source of neonatal alveolar epithelial stem cells in lung diseases is a problem that scientists are trying to solve.
Zhou Bin, chief professor of the School of Life Sciences of Hangzhou High School, has long been engaged in the research of lineage tracing and cell fate plasticity. In view of the key areas and controversial topics in the academic community, Professor Zhou Bin's research group has conducted systematic research and set up a research team for lung repair and regeneration, from initially revealing the non-specific labeling problem of single homologous recombination lineage tracing tools in the field through systematic and rigorous experiments, to developing a new technology for bi-homologous recombination lineage tracing to solve this technical problem, and then using new technologies to finally solve scientific controversies and elucidate molecular regulatory mechanisms.
After years of research, Professor Zhou Bin's research team put forward three innovative conclusions:
1
A series of new cell tracing technologies have been innovatively developed, which greatly improves the accuracy of target cell labeling. Track AT1, AT2, BASCs, and club cells more accurately and label them with specific markers, like a sniper rifle mounted with a scope, helping to accurately hit the bull's-eye.
2
The innovative discovery that alveolar epithelial AT2 cells will be derived from BASCs and club cells in addition to self-renewal, rather than AT1 cells, has solved many years of scientific controversy in the field.
3
It was found that club and BASCs have different cell differentiation pathways during the transition to AT2 cells, and are regulated by the Notch signaling pathway. Inhibition of the Notch signaling pathway will reduce the transdifferentiation of club cells into AT2 cells, and on the contrary, promote the transdifferentiation of BASCs cells into AT2 cells.
Origin of AT2 cell regeneration after lung injury
This series of innovative conclusions opens up new ideas for the research on lung injury repair and regeneration, and provides a new research basis for the treatment of lung diseases. In particular, the newly developed dual-gene marker-mediated cell tracing technology can be widely used in the study of organ development and regeneration, providing new technical methods for the research in many fields such as developmental biology, regenerative medicine, and genetics.
Liu Kuo, associate researcher of Professor Zhou Bin's studio at the School of Life Sciences of Hangzhou High University, Meng Xinfeng, a doctoral student at ShanghaiTech University, and Liu Zixin, a doctoral student at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cells of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are the co-first authors of the paper. Professor Zhou Bin is the corresponding author of the paper. The Hangzhou High Court is the first unit to complete the work. The research was supported by the Animal Platform and Cell Platform of the Center of Excellence for Molecular Cells and the Cell Analysis Platform of the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health. This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Hangzhou High Institute, and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation.
来源 | 国科大杭州高等研究院