Development of novel cell therapy for severe pneumonia using induced-pulmonary epithelial-like cells via direct reprogramming technique
Description: Regenerative medicine approaches for repairing or replacing damaged lung tissue induced by inflammatory lung disease such as severe pneumonia have been needed. Direct reprogramming from terminally differentiated cells to pulmonary epithelial cells is an emerging technique; however, there has been no report which demonstrate success of induction of pulmonary epithelial cells. Here, we have succeeded direct conversion to surfactant protein C (SP-C)-positive pulmonary epithelial-like cells from mouse fibroblast by defined four factors. Intratracheal injection of the induced pulmonary epithelial cells resulted in protection against influenza virus infection and decreased viral load in mice. In addition, some of the injected cells attached on bronchial surface, indicating that some injected cells contribute to regeneration of injured tissue.
Amount: ¥6,240,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Start date: 2018-06-29
End date: 2020-03-31
Investigator: Makoto Ishii
Institution: Keio University
Subfield: Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Funded outputs count: 10
Funder award ID: 18K19566
OpenAlex ID: G5083739941