Hu YL, Lin ZX, Zhang XY, Li GL, Liu WJ, Shi ZQ, Li XH, Yang ZZ. Combining mitochondrial antioxidant mitoquinone and mesenchymal stem cell therapy for amelioration of radiation-induced lung injury: Synergistic regenerative strategy. World J Stem Cells 2026; 18(6): 117622 [DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.117622]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhen-Zhou Yang, MD, Department of Cancer Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 74 Linjiang Road, Chongqing 400000, China. yangzz@cqmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Cell Biology
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
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Hu YL, Lin ZX, Zhang XY, Li GL, Liu WJ, Shi ZQ, Li XH, Yang ZZ. Combining mitochondrial antioxidant mitoquinone and mesenchymal stem cell therapy for amelioration of radiation-induced lung injury: Synergistic regenerative strategy. World J Stem Cells 2026; 18(6): 117622 [DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.117622]
Yan-Ling Hu, Xiao-Yue Zhang, Wei-Jie Liu, Zhen-Zhou Yang, Department of Cancer Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, China
Yan-Ling Hu, Guo-Li Li, Wei-Jie Liu, Zhong-Quan Shi, Xiao-Han Li, Department of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Three Gorges Medical College, Chongqing 404120, China
Zhong-Xiang Lin, Academic Affairs Office, Chongqing Three Gorges Medical College, Chongqing 404120, China
Co-first authors: Yan-Ling Hu and Zhong-Xiang Lin.
Author contributions: Hu YL and Lin ZX conceived and designed the study, they contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors; Hu YL, Zhang XY, Li GL, and Liu WJ conducted experiments and collected data; Hu YL, Lin ZX, Zhang XY, Li GL, Liu WJ, Shi ZQ, and Li XH analyzed and interpreted the data; Hu YL, Lin ZX, and Yang ZZ drafted the manuscript; and all authors critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experimental procedures were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Chongqing Three Gorges Medical College (Approval No. CQ-JL-2023090105).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. No additional data are available beyond those reported in this article.
Corresponding author: Zhen-Zhou Yang, MD, Department of Cancer Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 74 Linjiang Road, Chongqing 400000, China. yangzz@cqmu.edu.cn
Received: January 20, 2026 Revised: February 7, 2026 Accepted: March 30, 2026 Published online: June 26, 2026 Processing time: 155 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) remains a major limitation in thoracic radiotherapy, driven by oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation-fibrosis progression. Mesenchymal stem cells offer therapeutic potential but have limited survival in oxidative environments. This study demonstrates that combining the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant mitoquinone with mesenchymal stem cells significantly enhances treatment efficacy in a murine RILI model. The combination therapy improved lung function, reduced oxidative stress, restored mitochondrial homeostasis, and attenuated inflammation and fibrosis more effectively than either monotherapy. These findings highlight a dual-target strategy that optimizes stem cell-based interventions, offering a promising approach for RILI management.
