Epithelial tubes are crucial to the function of organ systems including the excretory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and pulmonary. Studies in the last two decades using in vitro organotypic systems and a variety of animal models have substantiated a large number of the morphogenetic mechanisms required to form epithelial tubes in development and regeneration. Many of these mechanisms modulate the differentiation and proliferation events necessary for generating the cell movements and changes in cell shape to delineate the wide variety of epithelial tube sizes, lengths, and conformations. For instance, when coupled with oriented cell division, proliferation itself plays a role in changes in tube shape and their directed expansion. Most of these processes are regulated in response to signaling inputs from adjacent cells or soluble factors from the environment. Despite the great deal of recent investigation in this direction, the knowledge we have about the signaling pathways associated with all epithelial tubulogenesis in development and regeneration is still very limited.

中文翻译：

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上皮管形成中的信号网络。

上皮管对于包括排泄，胃肠道，心血管和肺在内的器官系统的功能至关重要。在过去的二十年中，使用体外器官型系统和各种动物模型进行的研究证实了在发育和再生中形成上皮管所需的大量形态发生机制。这些机制中的许多机制调节产生细胞运动和细胞形状变化所必需的分化和增殖事件，以描绘各种各样的上皮管大小，长度和构象。例如，当与定向细胞分裂结合时，增殖本身在管形变化及其定向扩增中起作用。响应来自相邻细胞的信号输入或来自环境的可溶性因子，调节这些过程中的大多数。尽管最近在这个方向上进行了大量研究，但是我们对与所有上皮微管发生，发展和再生相关的信号传导途径的了解仍然非常有限。