Jesudason Edwin C
Academy of Medical Sciences Clinician Scientist/Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, The Division of Child Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L12 2AP, UK. .
Pediatr Surg Int. 2007 Sep;23(9):827-36. doi: 10.1007/s00383-007-1956-0.
Impaired lung development afflicts a range of newborns cared for by paediatric surgeons. As a result the speciality has led in the development of surgical models that illustrate the biomechanical regulation of lung growth. Using transgenic mutants, biologists have similarly discovered much about the biochemical regulation of prenatal lung growth. Airway smooth muscle (ASM) and its prenatal contractility airway peristalsis (AP) represent a novel link between these areas: ASM progenitors produce an essential biochemical factor for lung morphogenesis, whilst calcium-driven biomechanical ASM activity appears to regulate the same. In this invited paper, I take the opportunity both to review our recent findings on lung growth and prenatal ASM, and also to discuss mechanisms by which ASM contractility can regulate growth. Finally, I will introduce some novel ideas for exploration: ASM contractility could help to schedule parturition (pulmonary parturition clock) and could even be a generic model for smooth muscle regulation of morphogenesis in similar organs.
肺部发育受损困扰着一系列由小儿外科医生照料的新生儿。因此，该专业在阐明肺部生长生物力学调节机制的手术模型开发方面处于领先地位。通过使用转基因突变体，生物学家同样在产前肺部生长的生化调节方面有了很多发现。气道平滑肌（ASM）及其产前收缩性——气道蠕动（AP）代表了这些领域之间的一个新联系：ASM祖细胞产生一种对肺形态发生至关重要的生化因子，而钙驱动的ASM生物力学活性似乎对其起到调节作用。在这篇特邀论文中，我将借此机会回顾我们最近关于肺部生长和产前ASM的研究发现，并讨论ASM收缩性调节生长的机制。最后，我将介绍一些可供探索的新观点：ASM收缩性可能有助于安排分娩时间（肺部分娩时钟），甚至可能成为类似器官中平滑肌调节形态发生的通用模型。
