Explant culture of mouse embryonic whole lung, isolated epithelium, or mesenchyme under chemically defined conditions as a system to evaluate the molecular mechanism of branching morphogenesis and cellular differentiation.

Lung primordial specification as well as branching morphogenesis, and the formation of various pulmonary cell lineages, requires a specific interaction of the lung endoderm with its surrounding mesenchyme and mesothelium. Lung mesenchyme has been shown to be the source of inductive signals for lung branching morphogenesis. Epithelial-mesenchymal-mesothelial interactions are also critical to embryonic lung morphogenesis. Early embryonic lung organ culture is a very useful system to study epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. Both epithelial and mesenchymal morphogenesis proceed under specific conditions that can be readily manipulated in this system (in the absence of maternal influence and blood flow). More importantly this technique can be readily done in a serumless, chemically defined culture media. Gain and loss of function can be achieved using expressed proteins, recombinant viral vectors, and/or analysis of transgenic mouse strains, antisense RNA, as well as RNA interference gene knockdown. Additionally, to further study epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, the relative roles of epithelium versus mesenchyme signaling can also be determined using tissue recombination (e.g., epithelial and mesenchymal separation) and microbead studies.