A quantitative assessment of mesenchymal contribution to epithelial growth rate in mouse embryonic lung developing in vitro

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Abstract
The growth rate of the epithelial tree of mouse embryonic lung cultured in vitro was studied after removal of the right or left part of the rudiment, or after modification of the epithelium/mesenchyme ratio to about one-half of the normal. The epithelial growth rate is enhanced in both experimental conditions well above that of the controls. No satisfactory explanation can be put forward, so far, for the fact that when the total mass of the rudiment is reduced without any change in the ratio of the tissues, the growth rate of the epithelium is enhanced. From the results of the experiments in which the ratio of the two tissues was experimentally changed the conclusion may be suggested that, under the reported conditions of growth in vitro, lung mesenchyme exerts some stimulating influence on the total growth of the epithelium, expressed as total amount of branching, and that this influence is to some extent proportional to the amount of mesenchyme as compared with epithelium.