The role of macrophage in lung injury, repair and regeneration

Abstract

The risk of lung injury induced by microorganism infection or other physical/chemical insults is high due to the nature that the lung is constantly exposed to microbiota through inhalation. The lung was previously thought to be a highly quiescent tissue, which has limited reparative capacity. However, recent studies demonstrate that lung regeneration could be achieved as the tissues of the lung have facultative progenitor cell populations that can be activated to proliferate and differentiate in response to various injuries. There are several types of macrophages within the lung tissue, which play a key role in different phases of lung injury and are closely associated with lung regeneration after injury. Fine-tuning of the differentiation monocytes /macrophages could serve as an effective therapeutic approach to alleviate lung injury and promote lung regeneration.

Keywords

• lung regeneration
• macrophages
• inflammation
• type 1 alveolar epithelial cells
• type 2 alveolar epithelial cells