Growth hormone expression in the perinatal and postnatal rat lung

It is now established that the lung is a target site for pituitary growth hormone (GH) action, because pathophysiological states of pituitary GH excess and deficiency are associated with impaired pulmonary function. The onset of lung development and differentiation is, however, before the ontogenic differentiation of pituitary somatotrophs. GH may be involved, nevertheless, in lung development, because it is present in extrapituitary tissues of preimplantation mouse embryos and in the lung buds of embryonic chickens. The possibility that GH may be expressed in the rat lung during fetal and neonatal development, therefore, has been assessed. GH mRNA was detected in the lung, and its 693-bp sequence was identical to that in the pituitary gland. By in situ hybridization, this transcript was found to be abundantly expressed in the lungs of embryonic day (ED) 17 rats in mesenchymal, mucosal epithelial, and smooth muscle cells. This transcript was expressed in neonates until at least day 14 postnatally and was localized to type I and II epithelial cells and to pulmonary tissue macrophages and alveolar macrophages. GH immunoreactivity paralleled GH mRNA cellular localization throughout the time course studied. This immunoreactivity was specific and was lost after antibody preabsorption. The perinatal and postnatal lung is, therefore, an extrapituitary site of GH gene expression during development. Given that the GH receptor is present in the lung from early development, lung GH may have autocrine and/or paracrine roles in lung growth or differentiation or in pulmonary function.