[Embryonic lung cell allografts under the renal capsule--a new model for the study of lung development]

Lung is a critical respiratory organ of living body. The regulation of lung morphogenesis, especially the epithelial development in the late fetal stages, is not completely understood due to lack of efficiency strategies. In this study we showed that the growth of dissociated embryonic lung cells implanted underneath the kidney capsules of syngeneic hosts followed closely lung development in utero. The epithelium developed extensively and appeared to go through pseudoglandular stage, canallicular stage, and saccular stage at a pace similar to normal lung development. At the same time, the capillary-like vascular developed also. The greatest advantage of this model was that the dissociated single cells uptake antisence oligo at a high level, and introduced phenotype after grafting. Embryonic lung cell renal capsule graft is thus an excellent model for the study of lung morphogenesis.