Molecular pathway may hike lung stem cells

Philadelphia -- A U.S. study shows the activation of a molecular pathway important in stem cell and developmental biology leads to an increase in lung stem cells.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers said understanding that action could help develop therapies for lung-tissue repair after injury or disease.

"The current findings show increased activity of the Wnt pathway leads to expansion of a type of lung stem cell called bronchioalveolar stem cells," said Associate Professor Edward Morrisey.

"This information will give us a more extensive basic understanding of Wnt signaling in adult tissue repair in the lung and other tissues and also start to help us determine whether pharmacological activation or inhibition of this pathway can be utilized for treatments."

The findings appeared online last week in advance of print publication in the journal Nature Genetics.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.