A simple procedure for the isolation of pulmonary parenchyma free of major blood vessels and airways for biochemical studies.
A new method of preparation of lung parenchyma free from small and medium sized airways and blood vessels is described. The lung is frozen in the inflated state and cut into thin slices to facilitate visualization and separation of large blood vessels and airways. With the aid of a special steel brush mounted on a kitchen blender most of the smaller as well as medium sized blood vessels and airways are easily shaved off and subsequently separated from the parenchyma by sieving through a 20-mesh sieve. The fall-through portion consists almost entirely of alveoli. Amino acid analysis of elastin separated from the sieved fragments is similar to lung parenchymal elastin isolated and dissected from fresh lung tissue.
D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D005612:Freeze Drying; D005615:Freezing; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000098:blood supply; D051379:Mice; D010994:Pleura; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000032:analysis / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D012137:Respiratory System; D012756:Sheep