Abstract
It is not known if alveolar macrophages (AM) play an important role in the development of interstitial changes in the lung. The purpose of the present study was to learn if AM are related to the initiation of paraquat-induced lung injury in rats. An intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg paraquat was followed by a rapid increase in the number of viable AM. This effect reached a maximum at 24 h after injection. When 90 mg/kg of methylprednisolone was injected subcutaneously at the same time of the administration of paraquat there was no increase in the number of viable AM. After weekly injection of 5 mg/kg paraquat for six weeks, there were histological changes which were significantly supressed by the simultaneous administration of methylprednisolone. Methylprednisolone, however, did not show such suppressive effects when administered 4 d after the injection of paraquat. It is suggested that the emergence of viable AM is one of the key phenomena in the initiation of interstitial changes in paraquat-induced lung injury.
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Etoh, T., Shioya, S., Ohta, Y. et al. Role of alveolar macrophages in development of paraquat-induced lung injury. Lung 161, 47–55 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02713841
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02713841