Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis tagged posts

These are extracellular vesicles under the electron microscope. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum München

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable lung disease of unknown origin with limited treatment options. Research suggests that the signaling molecule WNT5A plays a key role in the pathogenic process. Now a group of scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München working with colleagues from the University of Denver have taken a further step towards uncovering the mechanisms responsible for the development of fibrosis: IPF is associated with the increase of extracellular vesicles that relay WNT5A signals to cells in the lungs...

3-D bioengineered lung-like tissue (left) resembles adult human lung (right). Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center

By coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the alveoli found in human lungs, researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have succeeded in creating three-dimensional lung “organoids.” The laboratory-grown lung-like tissue can be used to study diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has traditionally been difficult to study using conventional methods. “While we haven’t built a fully functional lung, we’ve been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung,” said Dr...