Evidence of a single type of epithelial stem cell in the airway and its implication for the future therapeutic strategy

Aims: Epithelial stem cells of the respiratory tract have been under intense investigation for their detection and characterization. However, no definite conclusion has yet been reached. This is partly because the respiratory tract is complex, consisting of several functionally and structurally different segments. This special situation has provided a general understanding that each of these segments possesses a specifically differentiated cell type that can also play a role as a precursor for epithelial regeneration. For this reason, investigators have primarily been concerned with detection of solid molecular…