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The Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society 5:360 (2008)
© 2008 The American Thoracic Society
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Evidence and Structural Mechanism for Late Lung Alveolarization

Johannes C. Schittny1, Sonja I. Mund1 and Marco Stampanoni2

1 Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; and 2 Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Johannes C. Schittny, Ph.D., Institute of Anatomy, University of Switzerland, Baltzerstrasse 2, CH3012 Bern, Switzerland. E-mail: johannes.schittny{at}ana.unibe.ch

According to the current view, new alveoli may not be formed anymore after the maturation of the alveolar microvasculature. During this phase of maturation (humans, 0–3 years; rats, Days 14–21), the double-layered capillary network inside the alveolar septa is reduced to a single-layered one. Now the lifting off of new alveolar septa from existing ones is believed to be excluded due to the missing of the second capillary layer. Therefore, a regeneration of lung parenchyma by a (re)formation of new septa after injury is supposed to be very unlikely. We challenged this view by measuring the appearance of new alveolar septa and by visualizing the alveolar capillary network in three dimensions by high-resolution synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy. We observed that new septa are formed as long as the lungs are growing (rats, Days 4–60) and that roughly half of the new septa are lifted off of single-layered capillary networks due to a local duplication of the capillary network at the basis of newly forming septa. Therefore, new alveoli may be formed in principle at any time during lung growth or adult life and lung regeneration may be possible. Clinically, our results may serve as a starting point for the development of new treatments of lung injury and degenerative lung diseases.

FOOTNOTES

Supported by grants #3100.068256.02 and #3100A0–109874 of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Conflict of Interest Statement: None of the authors has a financial relationship with a commercial entity that has an interest in the subject of this manuscript.

(Received in original form August 30, 2007; accepted in final form November 30, 2007)





This Article
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Right arrow Articles by Stampanoni, M.

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