“…In the present study, treatment with LATS-IN-1 increased AT1 transcriptome broadly, but it alone did not thin the spheroids, consistent with recent in vivo reports that YAP/TAZ activation alone is insufficient for AT1 cell differentiation ( Penkala et al., 2021 ). PI3K/AKT inhibitors induced thinning of the cells in FD-AOs, which is consistent with the recent report that AKT inhibition shortened stem cell length in the developing lung, indicating that AKT affects cell morphology in alveolar epithelial cells and is one of the factors controlling thinning ( Liu et al., 2023 ). When dissociated AT2 cells were reseeded onto a 2D culture, the flattened morphology was achieved as well as increased AT1 cell markers ( Kanagaki et al., 2021 ).…”