美国马萨诸塞州综合医院Jayaraj Rajagopal研究组发现气道干细胞能够感知缺氧并分化成保护性单核神经内分泌（NE）细胞。这一研究成果于2021年1月1日发表在《科学》杂志上。

他们显示，小鼠和人类气道基底干细胞感觉缺氧。缺氧触发这些干细胞直接分化为单核NE细胞。缺氧期间，这些单核NE细胞敲除导致上皮损伤增加，而NE细胞肽CGRP的给药可以挽救这种过度损伤。因此，他们鉴定出一类干细胞，它能直接感知缺氧，并被能够被分泌减轻轻度缺氧性保护肽的单核NE细胞应答。

据了解，NE细胞是上皮细胞，具有神经元的许多特征，包括分泌囊泡的存在和感知环境刺激的能力。单核气道NE细胞的正常生理功能仍然是一个谜。

附：英文原文

Title: Airway stem cells sense hypoxia and differentiate into protective solitary neuroendocrine cells

Author: Manjunatha Shivaraju, Udbhav K. Chitta, Robert M. H. Grange, Isha H. Jain, Diane Capen, Lan Liao, Jianming Xu, Fumito Ichinose, Warren M. Zapol, Vamsi K. Mootha, Jayaraj Rajagopal

Issue&Volume: 2021/01/01

Abstract: Neuroendocrine (NE) cells are epithelial cells that possess many of the characteristics of neurons, including the presence of secretory vesicles and the ability to sense environmental stimuli. The normal physiologic functions of solitary airway NE cells remain a mystery. We show that mouse and human airway basal stem cells sense hypoxia. Hypoxia triggers the direct differentiation of these stem cells into solitary NE cells. Ablation of these solitary NE cells during hypoxia results in increased epithelial injury, whereas the administration of the NE cell peptide CGRP rescues this excess damage. Thus, we identify stem cells that directly sense hypoxia and respond by differentiating into solitary NE cells that secrete a protective peptide that mitigates hypoxic injury.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aba0629

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/52