Abstract 18655: Lung Stem Cells and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by chronic inflammation, enlargement of bronchioles and alveoli, destruction of the alveolar walls, and ultimately respiratory failure. The recognition that the distal airways contain a pool of c-kit-positive lung stem cells (LSCs) suggests that the adverse evolution of COPD may be mediated by a decrease in LSCs and their ability to restore organ integrity. To test this hypothesis, the number and phenotypic properties of LSCs from control (N=13) and COPD (N=7) lungs were determined to establish a potential relationship between stem cell growth and differentiation and the pathobiology of the disease. We identified that the compartment of c-kit-positive LSCs contains a cell population that does not express the mesenchymal epitopes CD44/CD73/CD105, i.e., non-mesenchymal LSCs (non-mLSCs) and a cell class that is positive for these epitopes, i.e., mesenchymal-like LSCs (mLSCs). In control lungs, 77% of c-kit-positive cells were non-mLSCs and 23% wer...