Quest for breathing: proliferation of alveolar type 1 cells

Abstract

There is much evidence that the vertebrate lung originated from a progenitor structure which was present in bony fish. However, critical basic elements for the evolution of breathing in tetrapods, such as the central rhythm generator sensitive to CO2/pH and the pulmonary surfactant, were present in the lungless primitive vertebrate. This suggests that the evolution of air breathing in all vertebrates may have evolved through exaptations. It appears that the capability for proliferation of alveolar type 1 (AT1) cells is the “critical factor” which rendered possible the most radical subsequent innovation—the possibility of air breathing. “Epithelial remodeling,” which consists in proliferation of alveolar cells—the structural basis for gas diffusion—observed in the alimentary tract of the gut-breathing fishes (GBF) has great potential for application in biomedical research. Such a process probably led to the gradual evolutionary development of lungs in terrestrial vertebrates. Research on the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling proliferation of squamous epithelial cells in the GBF should contribute to explaining the regeneration-associated phenomena that occur in mammal lungs, and especially to the understanding of signal pathways which govern the process.