Walking along the Fibroblast Growth Factor 10 Route: A Key Pathway to Understand the Control and Regulation of Epithelial and Mesenchymal Cell-Lineage Formation during Lung Development and Repair after Injury

Figure 10

Resident mesenchymal progenitor cells in the adult lung. Cd45⁻ side population cells can be further characterized as Cd31⁻, Cd34⁺, and Sca-1⁺ mesenchymal cells. These cells were described as supporting the growth of epithelial stem/progenitor cells (epiSPC) that correspond to the α6β4-double positive cells. More recently, this subpopulation has also been subdivided into Cd166⁺, Cd90⁻ and Cd166⁻, and Cd90⁺ cells. The latter cells express Fgf10, support the growth of EpiSPC, and contain lipofibroblast progenitors.