Elsevier

Developmental Biology

Volume 3, Issue 1, February 1961, Pages 60-83
Developmental Biology

A study of development in organ cultures of mammalian lungs,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-1606(61)90010-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Explants of lungs from 16 litters of fetal rats (13–19 days) and from three litters of fetal guinea pigs (27, 30, and 60 days) were grown as organs on solid media containing 40% serum, glucose, and 1.5% agar. Most components of the lungs developed, though growth of the vascular tree was restricted. The columnar epithelium of the early lungs progressively became lower as branching proceeded and in some cultures even attenuated sharply at points where alveolus-like portions differentiated.

Mitotic rates in cultures from slowly developing guinea pigs were comparable to similarly aged lungs in vivo but in rats were considerably diminished. Glycogen concentrated in the budding terminal epithelium, where mitoses were most frequent, and disappeared after formation of the flattened “alveolar” lining. Other histochemical patterns seen in vivo were also closely reproduced in vitro. Comparable results in morphology and histochemistry were obtained in explants grown with added cyanide or malonate, but all cultures failed when given fluoride.

Thus, nearly full potential for the formation of lungs is contained within the explants, differentiations occur independent of growth, and anaerobic metabolism chiefly supplies the developing organ. These conclusions are weighed in the discussion, along with some emergent speculation on developmental mechanisms operating in the lungs.

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    Aided in part by United States Public Health Service Training Grant 2G-113 (C-1) to the Department of Pathology, and by Training Grant 2G-406 (S-1) to the Department of Anatomy, Harvard Medical School.

    ☆☆

    This work was begun while the author was Research Fellow in Pathology. In shorter form it was presented to the American Society of Zoologists in September, 1959.

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