Keratinocyte growth factor therapy in murine oleic acid-induced acute lung injury

ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) is a term generally applied to patients with severe manifestations of acute lung injury (ALI) and is characterized by severe alveolar damage. In histopathological terms, this encompasses capillary congestion, interstitial and alveolar edema, hyaline membrane formation, and alveolar type I (ATI) cell necrosis (4). ATI cells are large, with volumes of 3,000 m 3 /cell, and each cell forms a thin (0.2 m) cytoplasmic sheet (51) to facilitate gas exchange, which extends from the nucleus to cover the surface of one or more alveoli. Related to both this morphology and their inability to undergo mitosis and cellular repair, ATI cells are