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of electron microscopy, that the sur face of the alveolar wall is lined by a continuous but very attenuated layer of epithelium morphologically continuous with the light-visible epithelium lining the more proximally situated air passages. This epithelium is now known to comprise two varieties of cells, the first, the attenuated platelike, surface-lining alveolar epithelial cells (type 1 pneumocytes), and the second, the scattered, rounded, granular epithelial cells (type 2 pneumocytes) whose function appears to be mainly concerned with the production of the surface lining film of surfactant lipoprotein. The cytoplasm of the type 1 pneumocyte measures only 400 to 600 A thick and is admirably adapted for the rapid dif fusion of the alveolar gases. Both types of alveolar epithelial cells rest upon a common alveolar epithelial basement membrane which, over the convexity of the alveolar capillaries, fuses with the subjacent basement membrane lying outside and beneath the alveolar capillary endothelial cells. The total thickness of the entire alveolar wall at this point, which forms the blood-air barrier, is only 0.36 to 2.5 J.I. [Schultz (2)]. Where the alveolar epithelium does not clothe the surface of an alveolar capillary, the alveolar and capillary endothelial basement membranes separate to
Annual Review of Medicine – Annual Reviews
Published: Feb 1, 1967
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