[Roles of lung epithelial stem cells in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: mechanisms and therapeutic strategies]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a highly heterogeneous disorder characterized by progressive destruction and remodeling of the airways and lung parenchyma. It represents a significant global macroeconomic burden. The lung has a substantial capacity for injury repair to maintain homeostasis. However, this repair process is frequently dysfunctional in COPD. As a group of cells with self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation potential, pulmonary epithelial stem cells play a key role in COPD lung injury repair process, which is crucial for researchers to figure out the specific mechanism. Although research on lung epithelial stem cells in COPD is still in its early stages, significant milestones have been achieved, particularly through the application of multi-omics technologies. Therefore, this review aims to comprehensively discuss the known types of adult lung epithelial stem cells, their associated microenvironments, and differentiation trajectories, and their roles in injury repair in COPD, as well asrelated therapeutic strategies. Such insights could provide new theoretical foundations and targets for COPD treatment.