ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the preparation of the in vivo model of lung resection, and to a lesser extent, on the use of the isolated perfused lung to gain understanding of the mechanism and control of compensatory lung growth. It highlights the practical aspects of the model. Microscopic studies also show compensatory growth to be hyperplastic rather than the result of cellular hypertrophy. Investigations of the mechanisms of the action of regulators of compensatory lung growth in vivo are complicated by the numerous influences which operate simultaneously in the intact animal, and by the cellular heterogeneity of lung tissue. The removal of the left lung of male Sprague-Dawley rats is the most commonly used model of compensatory lung growth. Most studies of compensatory lung growth have been performed using rats; this species has been found to replace the tissue mass lost at pneumonectomy most efficiently. In rabbits, cats, and dogs, compensatory growth occurs more slowly and/or less completely.
