Mesenchymal stem cells for repair of the airway epithelium in asthma

Abstract

The airway epithelium is constantly faced with inflammatory and potentially injurious stimuli. Following damage, rapid repair mechanisms involving proliferation and differentiation of resident progenitor and stem cell pools are necessary in order to maintain a protective barrier. In asthma, evidence pointing to a compromised ability of the epithelium to properly repair and regenerate is rapidly accumulating. The consequences of this are presently unknown but are likely to have a significant impact on lung function. Mesenchymal stem cells have the potential to serve as a universal source for replacement of specific cells in several diseases and thus offer hope as a potential therapeutic intervention for the treatment of the chronic remodeling changes that occur in the asthmatic epithelium. However, controversy exists regarding whether these cells can actually home to and engraft within the airways and contribute to tissue function or whether this mechanism is necessary, since they can have potent paracrine immunomodulatory effects. This article focuses on the current knowledge about specific stem cell populations that may contribute to airway epithelial regeneration and discusses the use of mesenchymal stem cells as a potential therapeutic intervention.

Keywords::

• airway
• asthma
• epithelial repair
• injury
• lung
• mesenchymal stem cells
• tissue-resident stem cells

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Darryl A Knight is the Canada Research Chair in Airway Disease and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Investigator. Fabio M Rossi is the Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Fellow. Tillie-Louise Hackett is the recipient of Canadian Institute for Health Research/Canadian Lung Association/GSK, CIHR/IMPACT strategic training and Michael Smith Foundation postdoctoral fellowships. This work is funded by the CIHR and an unrestricted educational grant from the corporate office and Science and Technology at Johnson & Johnson. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.