Recent lineage tracing strategies, single-cell RNA sequencing approaches and high-resolution imaging identified remarkable heterogeneity of lung epithelial cells thus leaving open a question as to their specific functions in lung health and disease. Understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling lung epithelial cell morphogenesis and differentiation as well as communication with other cell types and extracellular matrix provides a basis for improving the outcome for patients with respiratory diseases. Although, the substantial progress has been made towards achieving this goal, we are still far away from being able to train/instruct lung epithelial cells in order to facilitate lung repair and regeneration. The special issue of the Cellular Signaling entitled "Between life and death: epithelial cells in lung pathologies" represents a blend of research articles and reviews, in which structural and functional diversities of lung epithelial cells in health and disease are discussed.

中文翻译：

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生与死之间：肺部病理中的上皮细胞。

最近的谱系追踪策略、单细胞 RNA 测序方法和高分辨率成像确定了肺上皮细胞的显着异质性，从而留下了关于它们在肺健康和疾病中的特定功能的问题。了解控制肺上皮细胞形态发生和分化以及与其他细胞类型和细胞外基质通讯的分子机制为改善呼吸系统疾病患者的预后提供了基础。尽管在实现这一目标方面取得了实质性进展，但我们距离能够训练/指导肺上皮细胞以促进肺修复和再生还很远。Cellular Signaling 特刊，题为“生与死之间：肺病理学中的上皮细胞”