A novel system for the culture of human lung: lung development and the response to injury

Our plain-English summary of A novel system for the culture of human lung: lung development and the response to injury, by M.T. Hsu, M. Dimaio, O.K. Reiss, et al (The American Journal of Physiology, 1992).

The study

• Authors: M.T. Hsu, M. Dimaio, O.K. Reiss, D. Ciurea, J. Gil
• Journal: The American Journal of Physiology
• Published: 1992;263(3 Pt 1):L308-16
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Existing methods of fetal lung organ culture are complicated and require special skills. With the use of a polyester-based plastic sheet, we have developed a simpler human fetal lung organ culture that is viable for 6 wk. This novel method permits the study of growth and differentiation, pulmonary surfactant secretion, and the response of human lung tissue to injury in vitro. Lung tissues, obtained from human fetuses ranging in gestational age from 14 to 18 wk, were cultured on the polyester sheet in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium supplemented with 15% fetal calf serum and gentamicin. Microscopic study of the fetal lung before culturing revealed round epithelial tubules, lined by glycogen-rich columnar cells and a thick cellular interstitium. After 1 wk in culture, morphological examination showed the development and expansion of alveolar saccules and thinning of the interstitium; type I and II pneumocytes as well as fibroblasts and myofibroblasts were present. Lipid analysis of the tissues, 2 wk after the initiation of the culture, demonstrated a high percentage of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine characteristic of pulmonary surfactant. Treatment of the organ culture with asbestos fibers induced type II cell hyperplasia, increased numbers of collagen fiber bundles within the interstitium, and the accumulation of multi-lamellated surfactant material within the alveolar lumens. We conclude that this organ culture system is suitable for studying lung growth, development, and injury in human tissue.

In plain English

This laboratory study did not involve people exposed to asbestos. The authors described a simpler way to keep human fetal lung tissue alive in a dish by growing it on a polyester plastic sheet. They studied cultures started from 10 fetal lungs, 14 to 18 weeks of gestational age, from electively terminated pregnancies. The cultures stayed alive for at least 6 weeks and developed air-sac-like spaces and type I and type II lung cells. Lipid tests on two cultures found surfactant-type fats. To test how the tissue responded to injury, the authors added Canadian chrysotile asbestos, at a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml, to tissue from three 15-week fetuses after 14 days in culture. One and two weeks later, microscopy showed large amounts of disorganized collagen in a widened interstitium, thickened epithelial basement membranes, extra layers of type II cells, and air spaces filled with surfactant-like material. The authors concluded that the method is simple and suits studies of lung development and injury. They described the asbestos lesion as consistent with the fibrotic response of lung tissue to asbestos in living lungs.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: laboratory experiment developing a human fetal lung organ culture method, including an asbestos injury experiment on cultured tissue
• Who was studied: Lung tissue from 10 human fetuses of 14 to 18 weeks gestational age, obtained from electively terminated normal pregnancies, grown as organ cultures at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York; tissue from three 15-week fetuses was used for the asbestos experiment
• Exposure: Canadian chrysotile asbestos suspended in saline at 8 mg/ml and added to the culture medium to a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml, 14 days after the culture was started; tissue was examined 1 and 2 weeks after the asbestos was added
• Main results:
  • The cultured fetal lung tissue (without asbestos) remained viable for at least 6 weeks.
  • In the cultured fetal lung tissue, type I and type II pneumocytes were present after 1 week in culture.
  • In lipid analysis of cultures after 14 days, more than 84% of the phosphatidylcholine fraction contained disaturated fatty acids (counting stearic acid), which the authors described as characteristic of surfactant.
  • In the asbestos-treated cultures, the most striking effect was the accumulation of large quantities of collagen fiber bundles within an expanded interstitium.
  • In the asbestos-treated cultures, there appeared to be more collagen after 2 weeks than after 1 week.
  • In the asbestos-treated cultures, myofibroblasts were absent and epithelial basement membranes were thickened.
  • In the asbestos-treated cultures, type II cell hyperplasia of one to two cell layers was seen after 1 and 2 weeks of treatment.
  • In the asbestos-treated cultures, the air-sac spaces were filled with large quantities of surfactant-like material and cellular debris.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the technique is simple and allows experimental studies of development and injury in human lung tissue. They described the asbestos lesion as consistent with the fibrotic response of the lung to asbestos in vivo.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors reported that the blood vessel bed did not grow further and air-blood barriers did not develop in the culture.
  • The authors noted that the culture contains no true alveoli; 'alveolar' refers to the distal airspaces.
  • The authors reported that after 6 weeks the culture lost the structure of lung tissue and became necrotic.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Tubule, Columnar Cell, Fibroblast, Collagen.

Related studies

• The response of human pleura in organ culture to asbestos — K.T. Rajan, J.C. Wagner, et al. (1972)
• Asbestos in peripheral lung culture a species comparison of pulmonary tissue response — M.E. Placke, G.L. Fisher (1987)
• The ultrastructure of asbestos bodies from guinea-pig lungs — J.M. Davis (1964)
• Use of hamster tracheal organ cultures for assessing the cocarcinogenic effects of inorganic particulates on the respiratory epithelium — B.T. Mossman, J.E. Craighead (1979)
• Chrysotile-mediated imbalance in the glutathione redox system in the development of pulmonary injury — P. Abidi, F. Afaq, et al. (1999)
• Mesothelial cell proliferation: a nonspecific response to lung injury associated with fibrosis — I.Y. Adamson, J. Bakowska, et al. (1994)

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