Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2012 Oct 1;4(10):a008243. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a008243.
Many animal organs, such as the lung, the kidney, the mammary gland, and the vasculature, consist of branched tubular structures that arise through a process known as "branching morphogenesis" that results from the remodeling of epithelial or endothelial sheaths into multicellular tubular networks. In recent years, the combination of molecular biology, forward and reverse genetic approaches, and their complementation by live imaging has started to unravel rules and mechanisms controlling branching processes in animals. Common patterns of branch formation spanning diverse model systems are beginning to emerge that might reflect unifying principles of tubular organ formation.
许多动物器官，如肺、肾、乳腺和脉管系统，都由分支管状结构组成，这些结构通过一种称为“分支形态发生”的过程产生，该过程是由上皮或内皮鞘重塑为多细胞管状网络而导致的。近年来，分子生物学、正向和反向遗传方法的结合，以及它们通过活体成像得到的补充，已经开始揭示控制动物分支过程的规则和机制。跨越不同模型系统的分支形成的常见模式开始显现，这可能反映了管状器官形成的统一原则。
