Lobo and his co-authors focused on “resident” lung cells, which they figured would more easily graft to the lungs and survive - a hypothesis backed up in a 2015 paper. Other research into stem cell therapies has largely focused on mesenchymal stromal cells, which have immunosuppressive qualities but aren’t necessarily obtained from lungs. Stem cells are young enough that they can still “grow up” to become any number of specialized cells, potentially including mature lung tissue cells. They would join about a dozen other clinical trials looking into the use of various types of stem cells to combat pulmonary fibrosis. “We might have to do more mouse trials, but the last time we met with the FDA, we got the feeling they weren’t leaning that way,” Lobo said. Those would start within six months after the approval. Lobo said they hope to have FDA approval to begin human trials by the end of the year. “People are doing a lot of interesting things with stem cells, and I expect eventually they’ll hit on something, and maybe this it.” Norman Edelman, senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Association, told Healthline.īut Edelman calls the new research “exceedingly interesting.” “It’s not as invasive as opening up your chest, but if you’ve ever had a tube stuck down your throat, you wouldn’t call it noninvasive,” Dr. However, “minimally invasive” may be a relative term.
Using the method employed by the researchers, Lobo told Healthline, medical professionals can tweeze out a few cells and send patients home the same day. Jason Lobo, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and co-author of the new papers. That requires putting the patient on a ventilator and cutting out a small piece of lung, said Dr. Lung stem cells are most often obtained surgically. It’s also the first time stem cells have been gathered and reproduced using the minimally invasive biopsy method, researchers said. The new research raises the possibility of reversing the impacts of fibrosis and similar diseases that cause lung inflammation, which gradually damages lung tissue and makes internal organs less able to transfer oxygen to the blood.
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