Cancer Research UK scientists have revealed that stem cells become 'activated' in severely damaged lungs and help to repair them, according to a study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences today (Monday).
These findings provide a crucial new insight into how lungs function on a cellular level and could help scientists devise a test to detect the early stages of lung cancer in people who are at a high risk of developing damaged lungs - such as long term smokers.
The primary role of stem cells is to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. But because stem cells are rare in comparison to normal cells, identifying exactly where they are and how they work has remained elusive.
A team of scientists from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute and led by Professor Barry Stripp from Duke University Medical School in the US used a unique 'whole-lung' imaging method to examine and identify the location of stem cells in the lung tissue of mice, and determine the role they play in both healthy and damaged lungs.
They found that, while stem cells don't appear to be involved in the normal maintenance of healthy or moderately injured lungs, they do play a vital role in repairing severely damaged lungs.
Study author Dr Adam Giangreco, from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, said: "Our results suggest that tissue injury is a catalyst for stem cell activation, as we only saw stem cells working to repair this tissue after severe damage.
"Understanding how stem cells repair damaged lungs will also help us to determine the way in which these cells promote the development of lung diseases including cancer. We hope that these findings lead to improved methods for early lung cancer detection. These might include regular screening for lung stem cell activation in people with a high risk of lung damage."
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK with 38,000 people receiving a diagnosis every year. The disease is also the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for more than one in five of all cancer deaths - or 22 per cent.