DEVELOPMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE RESPIRATORY AIRWAY EPITHELIUM OF THE ALBINO RAT BY LIGHT AND SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPES

Abstract

Inhaled environmental chemicals have been implicated in the causation of various disturbances of the respiratory tract. The increasing concern about various health hazards has lead to a situation where patients more frequently visit a physician because of different symptoms caused by occupational exposure.

The present work aimed to study the light microscopic structure of the epithelial lining of different parts of the respiratory airway of the albino rats during the postnatal period, the normal light and electron microscopic structure of the epithelial lining of the respiratory airway of the adult male albino rats, and the possible changes produced after exposure to toxic air pollutants; formaldehyde and benzene.

One hundred and twenty:xalbino rats were used in this work. They were classified into two groups:

(1) Postnatal developmental group:

In this group, the postnatal developmental study of epithelial lining of different parts of the respiratory tract was done on forty rats from the first day postnatal up to the age of three months. They were subdivided into four subgroups (ten for each) according to ages (one day, one week, one month, three months). The last subgroup was used as a control.