Changes in mesenchymal cell-shape, matrix collagen and tenascin accompany bud formation in the early chick lung.

In the chick, lung branches arise as buds from the center of the pre-existing mesobronchial tube. Budding is known to be controlled by the mesenchyme. We have investigated mesenchymal properties in budding vs non-budding regions of the early chick lung, including sources of mesenchyme, cell shapes and densities, morphology and composition of the basement membrane, and distribution of the ECM components collagen, fibronectin and tenascin. We found that at points of outgrowth--the buds and the distal tip of the mesobronchus-mesenchymal cells adjacent to the lung epithelium are flattened, and the basement membrane is markedly thinned. In these basement membranes collagen is largely absent and tenascin redistributed into amorphous clumps. Of these characteristics only the cell-shape change, which results in the flattened mesenchymal cells at the bud tips, is correlated with initiation of the bud. We suggest that the cell-shape change leads to localized loss of collagen, which promotes emergence of buds, and that tenascin, which is found in the mesenchyme only in the budding region, promotes outgrowth and elongation of the bud.