Chinese scientists take the world’s lead in making regeneration of human lung tissues come true by orthotopic transplantation of tissue-specific stem/progenitor cells, China News reported on Feb. 8.

The research by Professor Zuo Wei’s team at Tongji University School of Medicine has been recently published in the science journal Protein & Cell.

The team’s work showed that functional adult human lung structures can be reconstituted by the method, which could become a mature regenerative therapeutic strategy in the near future, according to Tongji University.

The research indicates a promising future for regenerative medicine, noted Jun Wu, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Liu Guanghui, a researcher with the Institute of Biophysics under Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to the paper, irreversible destruction of bronchi and alveoli can lead to multiple incurable lung diseases. Traditional medicine can only slow down the fibrosis of lung tissues.

However, identifying lung stem/progenitor cells with regenerative capacity and utilizing them to reconstruct functional tissue provides one of the biggest hopes to reverse the damage and cure such diseases.

The paper says that lung tissue repair and pulmonary function enhancement were observed in patients 3-12 months after cell transplantation.

Zuo disclosed that the team has carried out 80 such cell transplanting operations so far, and plans to start testing the method later this year.