Hope on the Horizon: Signs of Real Lung Regeneration

For years, we’ve been told that once the lungs are damaged by bronchiectasis, that damage can’t be reversed. But a new clinical trial using a patient’s own airway stem cells, called P63⁺ progenitor cells, is challenging that belief in a truly remarkable way.

In this study, patients had a small sample of their own airway cells collected through a bronchoscopy. Those cells were carefully grown and multiplied in the lab, then placed back into the lungs. The hope was that these special cells could help repair damaged tissue and restore lung function. By using autologous airway basal stem cells , it has demonstrated that damaged lung tissue can begin to repair itself. Patients who received these stem cells showed improvements in lung function within months, and imaging studies revealed something remarkable: previously dilated airways were partially shrinking, a clear indication that regeneration of the airway structure is possible. This is the first time we have seen actual structural remodeling in human bronchiectasis lungs, not just slowing of disease or symptom relief.— feeling excited.