Pulmonary development in the fetal one-humped camel: morphometry

The structural development of the fetal camel lung is described and quantif ied morphometrically in this report. During fetal development the lung weig ht and volume increased polynomially with body length. The correlation coef ficient between lung weight and body length is +0.991, and between lung vol ume and body length is +0.995. Volume density of the future bronchial tree showed a progressive increment with gestational age and is relatively highe r in male than female fetuses, and the differences are statistically signif icant at 340-420 mm CRL. The proportion of lung tissue occupied by saccular airspaces increased enormously during the canalicular and alveolar stage, and the differences between both sexes are statistically significant at the former stage. The number of alveoli per unit area correlates closely with body length (r = +0.928) and the correlation coefficient between alveolar d iameter and body length is +0.991. On the other hand, the correlation coeff icient between the number of alveolar ducts per unit area and body length i s -0.993, and is about +0.977 between the diameter of alveolar ducts and bo dy length.