Since COVID-19 landed, we have talked a lot about lungs over the past 9 months.We thought we knew all about the lungs, but researchers at Stanford have proved it wrong.
The Research on Human Lung
Researchers from multiple departments at Stanford University have created a cellular atlas of human lung. This atlas highlights the various cell types that make up a lung.
The researchers collected tissue samples from bronchi, bronchiole, and alveolar regions of the lungs. They also took blood sample for comparison.
All the samples were broken down into their cellular components and were sorted by these types – immune, epithelial, endothelial, or stomal.
The Findings
- Transcriptomes for around 75,000 cells.
- 58 distinct cell populations
- 14 lung cell types that were not previously known.
- Hormone targets in lungs
- When compared human and mice lungs, they found
- Mice lack ~30% of lung cell types
- Human lack ~ 5% of mice lung cell types
- Proving more diversification of early mammalian species than previously known.
This atlas is undoubtedly worthy to a wide array of medical researchers while providing new insights into the function, interaction, and regulation of lung cells.
