Lung disease is the major cause of death in cystic fibrosis (CF), bur the e
ffect of gene mutation on the morphology of the main structural compartment
s, of the lung is poorly understood.We show here to our knowledge for the f
irst time , a quantitative comparison of the fine pulmonary structures of c
ftr mutant versus non-cf mice. Pertinent volumes and surface areas were est
imated in 10 homozygous cftr(mlHGU) mutnnmutants and 11 non-cf littermates
by unbiased stereology at the light microscopic level. Our data did not rev
eal any statistical differences between group, means for any of the 9 param
etres considered. In other words, our data do not supply any significant ev
idence that the lack of the Cftr gene is accompanied by any developmental a
bnormalities in the lung, at least as far as the parametres studied are con
cerned.