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martyb writes:

A bad Bout of Flu Triggers 'Taste Bud Cells' to Grow in the Lungs:

The discovery of these seemingly out-of-place sensing cells may lend insight into possibilities for protecting lung function in people who experience severe influenza infections.

Most people who weather an infection with influenza fully recover after a week or two. But for some, a severe case of the flu can actually reshape the architecture of their lungs and forever compromise their respiratory function.

With a surprising new finding, researchers from Penn have identified what they believe to be a major feature of this remodeling process. When the team examined the lungs of mice after a severe bout with flu, they found cells virtually identical to those found in taste buds. Tracing the origin of these “taste bud cells,” also referred to as solitary chemosensory cells or tuft cells, the scientists found they arose from the same lineage of cells as those known to cause detrimental lung remodeling. With further study, the discovery may lend insight into possibilities for protecting lung function in people who experience severe influenza infections.

“It was just really weird to see, because these cells are not in the lung at baseline,” says senior author and team leader Andrew E. Vaughan, a biologist in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. “The closest they are normally is in the trachea. What we did was show where they’re coming from and how this same rare cell type that gives you all this maladaptive remodeling of the lung after flu is also the source of these ectopic tuft cells.”

[...] While an acute infection with influenza evokes what’s known as a Type 1 immune response in the body, the researchers found that the cell types and signaling markers that were elevated weeks after the animals’ infections were characteristic of a Type 2 immune response, one more often associated with allergies, asthma, nasal polyps, and even hookworm infections.

[...] From other studies of Type 2 immunity in the mouse gut, the researchers knew that tuft cells were required to orchestrate this type of response, so the researchers went looking for them in the lungs. “And lo and behold, there they were, all over the place,” says Vaughan.

[...] To understand what these solo “taste bud” cells were doing in the lungs post-influenza, the researchers tried activating them, using bitter compounds. This stimulation not only caused tuft cell numbers to expand, it also triggered acute inflammation. In lungs that had not been infected and therefore lacked the tuft cells, no such inflammation occurred.

Journal Reference:
Chetan K Rane, et. al. Development of solitary chemosensory cells in the distal lung after severe influenza injury. American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, 2019; DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00032.2019

The next time I'm coming down with something, I'll be sure to ask for a good bout of the flu, not a bad one.

Original Submission