Effect of Inflammation in the Lungs of Syrian Hamsters on Cellularity of Lavage Fluids

摘要

This study was undertaken to investigate the contribution of inflammatory response, when present in normal Syrian hamsters' lungs, to the fluctuations of cell yield and composition of lavage fluids. Rabbit and rodent lavage fluids have been extensively used to provide pulmonary alveolar macrophages for investigations of macrophage structure and function. Our interest is in the assessment of lung insult following exposure to particulates or gases using flow cytometric analysis. Our studies utilize the entire cellular component of lavage fluids, not merely isolated macrophages. These fluids contain basically three cell types (macrophages, leukocytes, and epithelial cells) in variable proportions and total numbers. The fluctuating values that were obtained have raised questions about the capacity of the lavage technique to reproducibly sample the exfoliative cell populations. Few of the animals had any significant degree of inflammatory response present in their lungs, and the data failed to show any reproducible correlations between yield and composition of lavage fluids and the pathologic state of the lungs. (ERA citation 06:008211)