Polyfunctional role of the alveolar brush cells in the rat lung

Abstract

An investigation by scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed an increase in the number of vacuoles in the apical part of the cytoplasm in the alveolar brush cells of the regenerating rat lung, hyperplasia of the lamellar complex, and activation of the protein-synthesizing apparatus. Immature surfactant material and secretory granules with an osmiophilic center were found in the cytoplasm of the brush cells. Colchicine, injected intramuscularly into rats six times in the course of the 24 h before sacrifice in a dose of 0.1 mg/100 g body weight, affected neither the number, topography, nor the structure of the bundles of microfibrils present in large numbers in the brush cells. Meanwhile, under the influence of colchicine, some of the microvilli of the alveolar brush cells undergo destruction and resorption. These data on the ultrastructural organization of these cells indicate that they can perform several functions: absorptive, contractile, and secretory.