pulmonary alveolus

Also known as lung alveolus, alveolus, alveoli, pulmonary alveoli

hollow cavity found in the lungs

AI overview

A pulmonary alveolus is a tiny hollow cavity in your lungs where oxygen from the air you breathe enters your blood. These microscopic air sacs are essential for gas exchange, allowing your body to get the oxygen it needs while removing carbon dioxide waste.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

32,363 papers

Capillary cell-type specialization in the alveolus.Nature · 2020Gillich A, Zhang F, Farmer CG et al.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2822-7
Pulmonary alveolus formation: critical period, retinoid regulation and plasticity.ReviewNovartis Foundation symposium · 2001Massaro D, Massaro GDDOI: 10.1002/0470868678.ch14
Regeneration of the lung alveolus by an evolutionarily conserved epithelial progenitor.Nature · 2018Zacharias WJ, Frank DB, Zepp JA et al.DOI: 10.1038/nature25786
Genomic, epigenomic, and biophysical cues controlling the emergence of the lung alveolus.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Zepp JA, Morley MP, Loebel C et al.DOI: 10.1126/science.abc3172
Contributions of retinoids to the generation and repair of the pulmonary alveolus.ReviewChest · 2002McGowan SEDOI: 10.1378/chest.121.5_suppl.206s
How to make an alveolus.The European respiratory journal · 2008Weibel ERDOI: 10.1183/09031936.00003308
The alveolus and the capillary.Critical care medicine · 2002Bigatello LM, George E, Hurford WEDOI: 10.1097/00003246-200206000-00052
Powering the formation of alveoli.eLife · 2022Hu Q, Königshoff MDOI: 10.7554/eLife.79651

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Has part: pneumocyte
Diameter: 350
Radius: 175

Show 4 more facts

Commons category: Pulmonary alveoli
venous drainage: pulmonary vein
native label: alveolus pulmonis
thickness: 0.4

Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~15 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A pulmonary alveolus (pl. alveoli; from Latin alveolus 'little cavity'), also called an air sac or air space, is one of millions of hollow, distensible cup-shaped cavities in the lungs where pulmonary gas exchange takes place. Oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide at the blood–air barrier between the alveolar air and the pulmonary capillary. Alveoli make up the functional tissue of the mammalian lungs known as the lung parenchyma, which takes up 90 percent of the total lung volume.

Alveoli are first located in the respiratory bronchioles that mark the beginning of the respiratory zone. They are located sparsely in these bronchioles, line the walls of the alveolar ducts, and are more numerous in the blind-ended alveolar sacs. The acini are the basic units of respiration, with gas exchange taking place in all the alveoli present. The alveolar membrane is the gas exchange surface, surrounded by a network of capillaries. Oxygen is diffused across the membrane into the capillaries and carbon dioxide is released from the capillaries into the alveoli to be breathed out.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pulmonary alveolus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.