Cultured alveolar basal cells differ in their transcriptome, but display similar characteristics and functional properties to airway basal cells

Basal cells ectopically appear within the lung parenchyma of interstitial lung disease (ILD) patients, however their exact origin, role and function remain poorly understood. By comparing ectopic alveolar to “classical” airway basal cells, we aimed to get a better understanding of the origin and disease-specific characteristics of alveolar basal cells. Alveolar and airway basal cells were isolated from transbronchial and airway mucosal biopsies of 3 ILD patients. Samples were analyzed by single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) using the 10X Genomics platform. -------------------------------------------------- Authors state "Raw data cannot be made available for this dataset on GEO due to patient privacy concerns, and patient consent stipulating that donors can withdraw at any time from the study."