To better understand whether or not TGF-β signaling in epithelial cells contributes to asthma development, we expressed Smad7 in mouse airway progenitor cells using a mouse Clara cell specific 10 kDa protein (CC10) promoter to specifically block TGF-β signaling pathway in airway epithelial cells.
In order to explore the impact of K14 in the pulmonary epithelium that normally lacks both squamous differentiation and K14 expression, human keratin 14 gene hK14 was constitutively expressed in mouse airway progenitor cells using a mouse Clara cell specific 10 kDa protein (CC10) promoter.
Rajagopal, Regev, and colleagues developed a new method called Pulse-Seq to monitor development of cell types from their progenitors in the mouse airway, which were verified in human tissue.
Loss of Crb3 in developing mouse airways or isolated adult airway progenitors results in unrestricted nuclear Yap activity and consequent cell differentiation defects.
Shan, L. et al. Sec14l3 is specifically expressed in mouse airway ciliated cells.
Multicilin is also necessary and sufficient to promote multiciliate cell differentiation in mouse airway epithelial cultures.
We thus determined the ontogeny and exocytic phenotype of mouse airway mucous cells.
Although the major basal cell-specific integrin ITGA6, encoding hemidesmosomes and relevant to stem/progenitor cell function, was present in both human and mouse airway basal cell signatures (Table S2), the genes encoding integrins ITGA5 and ITGB6 were enriched in human, but not mouse basal cells.
However, in the early phase of development, Ezh2 controls the formation of airways and is required for the full maturation of Sox2+ Scgb3airwayrway progenitor cells into club cells.
To classify the behaviour of the airway progenitor cell population, we turned to a more detailed quantitative analysis of the size distribution of CCO-deficient clones in the upper airways by analysing large areas of whole-mount airways.
Mou H, Zhao R, Sherwood R, Ahfeldt T, Lapey A, Wain J, Sicilian L, Izvolsky K, Musunuru K, Cowan C, Rajagopal J. Generation of multipotent lung and airway progenitors from mouse ESCs and patient-specific cystic fibrosis iPSCs.
