Amniotic Fluid-derived Stem Cells Show Promise Against Respiratory Diseases

Epithelial cells derived from human amnion fluid show promising results against lung disease, finds study.

"Respiratory disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality," said corresponding author Dr. Euan M. Wallace, director of The Ritchie Centre, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Monash Medical Centre.

"There is an urgent need for cell-based therapies to treat respiratory diseases, and the use of cells isolated from human term placenta for regenerative medicine holds great promise," he added.

As a recent research has shown that stem cells derived from human placenta have multipotent differentiation properties, low immunogenicity, and anti-inflammatory functions, a team of researchers in Australia aimed to explore the mechanisms by which hAECs may help to repair pulmonary fibrosis and to determine if the hAECs were able to improve lung function in mouse models of lung injury.

They injected hAECs into the animals' peritoneal cavity to determine if the cells would migrate to the lung, engraft, and form functional lung epithelium.

"We found that hAECs prevented a decline in pulmonary function," said Wallace.

"However, we were unable to detect any significant engraftment of hAECs in injured or uninjured lung after administration," he added.

Source: ANI