上呼吸道充当空气通向呼吸系统的管道，并与几种慢性疾病有关。虽然已经非常详细地描述了远端呼吸系统的细胞生物学，对近端上气道的了解较少。在这次审查中,我们描述了上呼吸道的相关解剖结构，并讨论了详细说明这些区域祖细胞的鉴定和作用的文献。
The upper airway acts as a conduit for the passage of air to the respiratory system and is implicated in several chronic diseases. Whilst the cell biology of the distal respiratory system has been described in great detail, less is known about the proximal upper airway. In this review, we describe the relevant anatomy of the upper airway and discuss the literature detailing the identification and roles of the progenitor cells of these regions.
