Lung regeneration by fetal lung tissue implantation in a mouse pulmonary emphysema model

Abstract

The mortality and morbidity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are high. However, no radical therapy has been developed to date. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether fetal mouse lung tissue can grow and differentiate in the emphysematous lung. Fetal lung tissue from green fluorescent protein C57BL/6 mice at 16 days' gestation was used as donor material. Twelve-month-old pallid mice were used as recipients. Donor lungs were cut into small pieces and implanted into the recipient left lung by performing thoracotomy under anesthesia. The recipient mice were sacrificed at day 7, 14, and 28 after implantation and used for histological examination. Well-developed spontaneous pulmonary emphysema was seen in 12-month-old pallid mice. Smooth and continuous connection between implanted fetal lung tissue and recipient lung was recognized. Air space expansion and donor tissue differentiation were observed over time. We could clearly distinguish the border zones between injected tissue and native tissue by the green fluorescence of grafts. Fetal mouse lung fragments survived and differentiated in the emphysematous lung of pallid mice. Implantation of fetal lung tissue in pallid mice might lead to further lung regeneration research from the perspective of respiratory and exercise function. J. Med. Invest. 63: 182-186, August, 2016.

Surgical Model of in Vivo Culture of Stem Cells by Implantation of Fetal Organs into Adult Animals

“…They are low cost and simple execution. They are not exclusive: a lot of foetal organs was not tested here such as brain, kidney, lung, and other implantation sites are also possible, many of them having been mentioned in literature [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Our studies have many common features with organoid creation studies, except that the last are started in vitro and their growth can be obtained from other organs of the same embryonic sheet (for instance intestine crypt cells can give growth to pancreas) by experimental monitoring means [32].…”