Knowledge about the mechanisms of lung development has been growing rapidly, especially with regard to cellular and molecular aspects of growth and differentiation. Written by over 30 internationally recognized authorities, this book reviews key aspects of lung development in health and disease. These include lung branching morphogenesis and the role of growth factors and extracellular matrix, elastogenesis, differentiation and maturation of airway epithelial cells, gene expression in alveolar development, pulmonary angiogenesis, development of pulmonary vasculature, physiological and clinical implications of nitric oxide and endothelin in the developing pulmonary circulation, development of cellular host defense mechanisms, development of epithelial transport, mechanisms of lung growth and tissue repair, transgenic models of lung development and disease, nutritional aspects of lung development, pulmonary hypoplasia and the role of mechanical factors in prenatal lung growth, pulmonary antioxidant defense mechanisms, and lung development after transplantation. The book will be an indispensable volume for neonatologists and pediatricians, pulmonologists and pulmonary disease specialists, physiologists, chest surgeons, molecular and cellular biologists, anatomists, pathologists, anesthesiologists, intensive care physicians, and obstetricians who are involved in neonatal and pediatric pulmonary disorders and their sequelae in adulthood.
Edited by Claude Gaultier, Jacques R. Bourbon and Martin Post
1999, 464 pp.; 66 illus., ISBN 019-511278-4