During late fetal development, the lung must prepare for the transition to air breathing. Maintaining alveolar stability becomes vital for survival. Therapy with glucocorticoids to enhance lung maturity may have immediate and long term consequences for lung structure and function. This series of investigations is directed toward furthering our basic knowledge of lung secretory cell development. We will use structural and biochemical methods to test hypotheses of secretory cell function and to test the probabilities that glucocorticoids damage fetal and newborn lung structure. We intend to study biochemical and 3-dimensional morphologic changes during epithelial cell maturation in the last days of fetal development. We will test hypotheses of the assembly of lamellar bodies and assess the changes in type II cell maturation induced by glucocorticoids. This drug induced accelerated maturation is a relevant clinical concern as the effects are widespread within the lung and have not been shown to be entirely reversible during postnatal growth. A detailed 3-dimensional morphologic study of groups of alveolar septa and of terminal bronchiolar structure will be conducted at allow magnification level that will test the microanatomic basis for theories of cell-cell interactions.
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