The role of Sonic Hedgehog in postnatal mouse lung development

Hedgehog signaling pathway is a main regulator, in the normal development of many tissues such as lung in most animals. As a key protein of hedgehog signaling pathway, sonic hedgehog (Shh) has shown to be critical regulator in the branching morphogenesis of the lung. Until now the role of Shh in all cell types responsible for the alveolarization is pretty unknown. Since Shh has been found to have a critical role in tissue development, acting as a morphogen involved in tissue patterning, we hypothesize that Shh expression is critical for the regulation of the lipofibroblast and myofibroblast phenotypes, both of w…