The morphology and morphometry of the adult normal baboon lung (Papio anubis).

Abstract

Numerous morphological studies on diverse aspects of the organisation of the mammalian lung notably in respect to structure, development, response to irritants and functional demands are currently available. Some of the most recent accounts and reviews on these aspects are those by Weibel (1973, 1984), Sorokin & Brain (1975), Breeze & Wheeldon (1977), Weibel & Gil (1977), Grant, Sorokin & Brain (1979), Pinkerton et al. (1982), Thurlbeck (1982), Hirai, Uyeda & Ogawa (1984), Gehr (1984), Brown, Bliss & Longmore (1984), Lechner (1985), Maina (1985), Burri (1985) and Winkler & Cheville (1985). Recently the lungs of the non-human primates have received special interest (Carstens & Allen, 1969; Kapanci, Weibel, Kaplan & Robinson, 1969; Kaplan, Robinson, Kapanci & Weibel, 1969; Davies & Reid, 1970; Wang & Thurlbeck, 1970; Greenwood & Holland, 1973; Castleman, Dungworth & Tyler, 1975; Kerr & Helmuth, 1974; Kerr, Couture & Allen, 1975; Boyden, 1977; Hislop, Howard & Fairweather, 1984; Wilson, Plopper & Hyde, 1984; Tyler & Plopper, 1985). This is largely due to the notion that the non-human primates, when compared with the other mammalian experimental animals, constitute in most biological aspects a better model for the study of human pulmonary structure, function and pathology (Lapin, 1971; Bourne, 1973). Morphometric methods are particularly effective in studying and evaluating the organisation of the biological tissues as they are sensitive enough to reveal remarkably small structural and developmental changes which otherwise would go undetected by qualitative observations. These techniques have been applied to the lungs of the non-human primates by Kapanci et al. (1969), Kaplan et al. (1969), Conradi et al. (1971) and Hislop et al. (1984) to evaluate developmental and experimental situations such as breathing pure oxygen and inhalation of beryllium. As observed ,by Castleman et al. (1975), studies of the tissues of the non-human primates, in view of their potential utilisation in human biological investigations, are few in number. For example, the most extensive morphometric studies illustrating the structure and the gas exchange potential of the primate lung are apparently those on the human lung by Gehr, Bachofen & Weibel (1978) and the macaque monkey (Macaca irus) by Conradi et al. (1971). The present study examines the lung of the olive baboon (Papio anubis) in an attempt to find out whether its pulmonary organisation is any different from that of the lungs of the other non-human primates and man. The gas exchange structural characteristics of the baboon lung are compared with those of the other primates as far as available data allow.