Properties of Adult Lung Stem and Progenitor Cells.

The last decade has seen significant progress in understanding the organisation of regenerative cells in the adult lung. Cell-lineage tracing and in vitro clonogenic assays have enabled the identification and characterisation of endogenous lung epithelial stem and progenitor cells. Selective lung injury models, and genetically engineered mice have revealed highly conserved gene networks, factors, signalling pathways, and cellular interactions important in maintaining lung homeostasis and regulating lung regeneration and repair following injury. This review describes the current models of lung epithelial stem and progenitor cell organisation in adult mice, and the impediments encountered in translational studies aiming to identify and characterise their human homologs. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2582-2589, 2016.