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Workshop Summary
Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. Vol. 25, pp. 137–140, 2001
Internet address: www.atsjournals.org
Basic Mechanisms of Lung Development
Eighth Woods Hole Conference on Lung Cell Biology 2000
Wellington V. Cardoso and Mary C. Williams
Pulmonary Center, Department of Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Studies of the molecular regulation of lung development
have reached the log-growth phase. The key questions related
to lung development are formidable ones to answer,
demanding sophisticated and sensitive molecular tools and
the use of many different animal, organ, and cellular experimental
models. The eighth Y2K Woods Hole Conference
on Lung Cell Biology, organized by faculty of the Pulmonary
Center, Boston University School of Medicine, and
supported by the Division of Lung Diseases of the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, explored some of the recent
research in this basic area of lung cell and molecular biology.
Many of the fundamental questions, concepts, and
observations about basic developmental processes and lung
development have been addressed in recent reviews (1–10).
Fundamental Questions
The fundamental questions in lung development are interesting
but difficult to answer in specific molecular terms. Many,
if not all, of these questions apply to the development of
other organs and are not unique to lung development per se
or to the mammalian lung. For that reason a number of presentations
summarized the current molecular understanding
of model systems including chick limb, tracheal system of
Drosophila
, and organogenesis of the mammalian liver.
Other presentations described postnatal development because
it is well known that certain changes in lung structure
and function, such as alveolization, occur mainly after birth.
The key questions discussed at the meeting included
these: What directs an area of the foregut to become lung,
and what cellular and molecular mechanisms account for...