The Cytological and Immunohistochemical Study of Septal Cells in the Rat Lung

抄録

Septal cells in the alveolar interstitium of the lung have been assumed to be contractile and involved in the regulation of ventilation/perfusion ratio. We studied two cytoskeletal components of the septal cell in the rat lung. One contains thick microfilament bundles: by decoration with heavy meromyosin, the bundle was shown to be composed of actin filaments of opposite polarity. The other contains intermediate filaments: by pre-and post-embedding immunogold electron microscopy, they were shown to contain both desmin and vimentin. Double labeling immunoelectron microscopy further revealed that some intermediate filaments are co-polymers of desmin and vimentin. The features revealed in the present study support the hypothesis that septal cells can contract and change the architecture of the air-blood barrier.