Saving Alveoli

Half a billion – that’s roughly how many tiny air sacs called alveoli make up your lungs. Alveoli are where the action happens: oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. But in the fatal disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), they’re irreversibly damaged. There's currently no treatment for IPF, but now, researchers present the first clinical trial of a stem cell therapy. They isolated stem cells called P63+ airway basal progenitors from 12 IPF patients and expanded their numbers. These patients were treated with increasing doses of these cells. Those receiving higher doses showed improvements in gas transfer in their lungs and their ability to exercise. Computed tomography (CT) scans (pictured) also showed some improvement in lesions (red) in their lungs 24 weeks after treatment (right) compared to before treatment (left). This provides hope that a stem cell treatment for IPF could someday become a reality.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Shiyu Zhang, Min Zhou, Chi Shao and Yu Zhao, and colleagues
• Tongji University, Shanghai; Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai; Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), January 2025