The world’s first lung regenerative therapy gives new hopes

A major breakthrough in the treatment of lung disease: researchers announced a new solution to repair damaged lungs’ tissue through stem cell transplantation.

“Lung diseases have become the third killer following cardiovascular disease and cancer, while traditional methods do not work effectively in that regard,” said Wei Zuo, one of the team’s researchers.

Lung-related diseases are therefore widespread and deadly around the world. Yet, treatments are slow to come. Some of the main explanations for this problem is due to the lack of donor’s lungs as well as severe side effects resulting from rejection.

This new treatment might be the biggest hope for people suffering from lungs diseases.

“Both patients and researchers need great courage to step forward from benchside to bedside, to test the new therapeutic strategy. Now the good news is that the strategy looks quite promising”.

In order to test the capacity of lung stem cells to regenerate lung tissue in vivo, the team transplanted human lung stem cells into damaged lungs of mice. Three weeks after transplantation, they detected that human lung stem cells were integrated into mice lungs.

“Chronic lung diseases could be conquered within 5 years,” said Professor Zuo.