# Regulatory Mechanisms of Cell Competition in Lung Regeneration

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $522,931

## Abstract

Project summary/abstract
 Worldwide, millions of people suffer from respiratory lung diseases. The only viable option for patients
with the end-stage pulmonary disease is lung transplantation, a mediation that is impeded by a major shortage
of donor lungs.
 Current bioengineering strategies to generate a fully functional lung have been largely unsuccessful in
reproducing its extraordinary complexity; achieved by a step-wise developmental program of the lungs in vivo.
Recent studies highlight the contribution of cell competition in the developmental program of organogenesis, a
still poorly understood mechanism that can be used to reconstitute a particular tissue or organ otherwise unable
to form properly. From this perspective, Blastocyst Complementation (BC) is a highly innovative regenerative
approach that allows integration of donor cells in defective host animals resulting in the generation of chimeric
animals. This strategy has been developed to regenerate functional internal organs, such as the kidney and
pancreas in small and large animals. Utilizing this approach, we successfully generated normal lungs by rescuing
the lung agenesis phenotype of a Fgfr2 null mutant mouse in vivo. The recipient mice survived to adulthood with
fully functional regenerated lungs. These observations give rise to crucial questions: how this cell competition
mechanism acts in different defective progenitor niches, what is the impact of specific signaling pathways in the
context of different defective organ niches, and how do we optimize these findings. To gain insights into these
issues, we propose to:
(Aim1) Examine BC-mediated mechanisms of cellular reconstitution in defective lung mesodermal and
endodermal organ niches.
(Aim2). Explore how donor cells are targeted into the lung organ niche in vivo.
These studies will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism of organogenesis and will establish a
solid base for the future use of BC-based approaches in regenerative medicine.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10206258
- **Project number:** 5R01HL148223-03
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Munemasa Mori
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $522,931
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-15 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10206258

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10206258, Regulatory Mechanisms of Cell Competition in Lung Regeneration (5R01HL148223-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10206258. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*