Distribution of alveolar type ii cells in neonatal and adult rat
lung revealed by rt-pcr-in-situ.
Mensah, Eugene A., Niranjan M. Kumar, Lori Nielsen, and Jamson S.
Lwebuga-Mukasa.
Lung Biology Research Program, Division of Pulmonary and Critical
Care, Department of Internal Medicine, SUNY at Buffalo School of
Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo General Hospital, Buffalo,
NY 14203
APStracts 3:0076L, 1996.
Type II pneumocytes in newborn lungs are more uniformly distributed,
while in adult lungs they are located at alveolar corners. We used
morphometry and RT-PCR-in-situ hybridization of surfactant protein C
(SP-C) mRNA to determine the patterns of type II cell distribution in
random lung sections from various neonatal stages and adult Sprague
Dawley rats. There was a progressive increase in the percentage of
type II cells at alveolar corners from 30 % at 1 day to 51 %, 62 %,
78 % and 81 % at 3, 5, 7 days old and adult rats, respectively. There
were statistically significant differences (p< 0.001) in the
localization of type II cells from the nearest alveolar corner in the
1 day old as compared to 7 day old and adult rat lungs. These results
show that rat type II cells localize to the alveolar corners within
the first 7 days postnatally, and provide a system for study of
factors that regulate alveolar epithelial cell distribution.
Received 22 January 1996; accepted in final form 3 May 1996.
APS Manuscript Number L27-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Lung Cell. Mol.
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 28 May 96