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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

An Experimental System to Study Mechanotransduction in Fetal Lung Cells
Published on: February 16, 2012
Apical Secretion of FSTL1 in the Respiratory Epithelium for Normal Lung Development
Xiaohe Li1, Yinshan Fang1, Xue Li1
1State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
Abstract:
Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) is a secreted bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist, and it plays a crucial role in normal lung development. Deletion of Fstl1 leads to postnatal death in mice due to respiratory failure. To further explore the role of FSTL1 in mouse lung development, we created a transgene SFTPC-Fstl1 allele mouse displaying significant epithelial overexpression of Fstl1 in all stages of lung development. However, epithelial overexpression of Fstl1 did not alter lung morphogenesis, epithelial differentiation and lung function. Moreover, we found that FSTL1 function was blocked by the epithelial polarization, which was reflected by the remarkable apical secretion of FSTL1 and the basolateral BMP signaling. Taken together, this study demonstrates that tightly spatial interaction of FSTL1 and BMP signaling plays an essential role in lung development.
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