Developmental Changes in the Structure of the Rat Fetal Lung, with Special Reference to the Airway Smooth Muscle and Vasculature

摘要

Structural changes in the developing rat lung were studied by a combined use of light microscopy including immunohistochemistry for α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using the KOH-collagenase digestion method. In the embryonic stage (E11-E13), the lung bud appeared as an outgrowth from the ventral wall of the foregut which grew caudally into the splanchnic mesoderm to form a pair of bronchial buds at the end. At E13, the airway smooth muscle cells first appeared around the bifurcation of the trachea. These smooth muscle cells were restricted to the dorsal surface of the tracheal epithelium, suggesting a difference in character between the dorsal and ventral sides of the mesenchymal cells in this region. During the pseudoglandular stage (E13-E18.5), the bronchial buds repeatedly gave off branches in the mesenchymal tissue. The smooth muscle cells in the bronchioles were spindle-shaped and arranged completely circularly around the epithelial tube, except that the terminal bud of bronchioles lacked the smooth muscles. The neck of the terminal bud was constantly surrounded by flat and irregularly-shaped immature smooth muscle cells, representing an early event in the smooth muscle cell differentiation from mesenchymal cells. In the canalicular to saccular stages (E18.5 to birth), the terminals of bronchioles became saccular, thus forming prospective alveolar acini. At birth, the alveolar wall became thinner than before birth, and the individual smooth muscle cells in bronchioles were elongated like a tape.As to the blood vessel differentiation, various sized sinusoidal spaces indicating the primitive blood vessels were already present in the mesenchymal tissue at E11.5. The endothelial cells of these sinusoidal spaces were irregularly shaped and sometimes extended their processes into the lumen. The network of tubular vessels appeared from E14.5. These vessels had tapering ends as well as transluminal trabeculae, suggesting that capillary growth proceedsby both the sprouting and partitioning (i.e., intussusception) of vessels in the pseudoglandular stage.