Dedifferentiation of committed epithelial cells into stem cells in vivo

The document details a study showing that differentiated luminal secretory cells in the airway epithelium of mice can dedifferentiate into basal stem cells following the ablation of basal stem cells. These dedifferentiated cells were morphologically and functionally similar to endogenous basal stem cells and contributed to the repair of epithelial injury. The study involved lineage tracing, proliferation marker expression, and ex vivo culture experiments, demonstrating that secretory cells could become multipotent stem cells and self-renew. The findings suggest that committed cells have the potential to revert to a stem cell state, which has implications for tissue regeneration and cancer biology. The number of mice used in the experiments varied, with a key experiment involving 6 mice where 7.9% of basal cells expressed a YFP lineage label.