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Alveolar stem cells in canine bronchial carcinogenesis
A A Ten Have-Opbroek1, J R Benfield, W G Hammond
1Department of Pneumology, Leiden University, The Netherlands. have@rullf2.leidenuniv.nl
Abstract:
Alveolar type II cells are not present in normal epithelium of canine segmental bronchi but after carcinogen exposure they do occur in intra-epithelial lesions with all degrees of atypia and in invasive lesions with different glandular growth patterns. Immunohistochemistry for proliferation markers (PCNA; Ki-67) strongly suggest that such novel type II cells are pluripotential stem cells in canine bronchial carcinogenesis. Very likely, bronchial carcinogenesis is subject to an oncofetal mechanism of differentiation: bronchial epithelial retrodifferentiation followed by novel differentiation of alveolar tumor stem cells.