The pores of Kohn (also known as interalveolar connections or alveolar pores) are discrete holes in
walls
Walls may refer to:
*The plural of wall, a structure
* Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname
Places
* Walls, Louisiana, United States
* Walls, Mississippi, United States
*Walls, Ontario
Perry is a township (Canada), ...
of adjacent
alveoli
Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit.
Uses in anatomy and zoology
* Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte
** Alveolar duct
** Alveolar macrophage
* M ...
.
Cuboidal
type II alveolar cell
A pulmonary alveolus (; ), 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 bar ...
s, which produce
surfactant
Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word ''surfactant'' is a Blend word, blend of "surface-active agent",
coined in ...
, usually form part of aperture.
Etymology
The pores of Kohn take their name from the German physician and pathologist Hans Nathan Kohn (1866–1935) who first described them in 1893.
Development
They are absent in human newborns. They develop at 3–4 years of age along with
canals of Lambert
Collateral ventilation is a back-up system of alveolar ventilation that can bypass the normal route of airflow when airways are restricted or obstructed. The pathways involved include those between adjacent alveoli (pores of Kohn), between bronchio ...
during the process of thinning of alveolar septa.
[
]
Function
The pores allow the passage of other materials such as fluid and bacteria, which is an important mechanism of spread of infection in lobar pneumonia
Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia characterized by inflammatory exudate within the intra-alveolar space resulting in consolidation that affects a large and continuous area of the lobe of a lung.
It is one of three anatomic classifications ...
and spread of fibrin in the grey hepatisation phase of recovery from the same. They also equalize the pressure in adjacent alveoli and, combined with increased distribution of surfactant, thus play an important role in prevention of collapse of the lung.
Unlike adults, in children these inter-alveolar connections are poorly developed which aids in limiting the spread of infection. This is thought to contribute to round pneumonia
Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia characterized by inflammatory exudate within the intra-alveolar space resulting in consolidation that affects a large and continuous area of the lobe of a lung.
It is one of three anatomic classifications ...
.
References
{{reflist
Lung anatomy
Holes
Anatomy named for one who described it