Published ahead of print on April 7, 2005, doi:10.1164/rccm.200502-203WS Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 172, Number 1, July 2005, 136-139 A more recent version of this article appeared on July 1, 2005
Submitted on February 9, 2005 NHLBI Workshop Summary: The Mysterious Pulmonary Brush Cell-A Cell in Search of a FunctionLynne Reid1,1 Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA, 2 Department of Pathology, Center for Lung Research, Nashville, TN, USA, 3 Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA, 4 Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Department of Medicine, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, CO, USA, 5 Department of Medicine, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, CO, USA, 6 Lung Biology and Disease Program, Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: reynoldsh{at}mail.nih.gov.
Brush cells, also termed tuft, caveolated, multivesicular and fibrillovesicular cells, are part of the epithelial layer in the gastro intestinal and respiratory tracts. The cells are characterized by the presence of a tuft of blunt squat microvilli (approximately 120-140 per cell) on the cell surface. The microvilli contain filaments that stretch into the underlying cytoplasm. They have a distinctive pear shape with a wide base, and a narrow microvillous apex. The function of the pulmonary brush cell is obscure. For this reason, a working group convened on August 23, 2004 in Bethesda, Maryland, to review the physiologic role of the brush (microvillous) cell in normal airways and alveoli and in respiratory diseases involving both the alveolar region, e.g., emphysema and fibrosis, and airway disease characterized by either excessive or insufficient amounts of airway fluid (examples, cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis and exercise-induced asthma). The group formulated several suggestions for future investigation. For example, it would be useful to have a panel of specific markers for the brush cell and in this way separate these cells for culture and more direct examination of their function, e.g., microarray analysis and proteomics. Using quantitative analysis, examine the number and location of the cells in disease models. Understanding the function of these cells in alveoli and airways may provide clues to the pathogenesis of several disease states, e.g. cystic fibrosis and fibrosis as well as a key for new therapeutic modalities. Key words: microvilli, airway epithelium, alveolar epithelium, third pneumonocyte
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