Ultrastructural study of bronchial epithelium in chronic respiratory diseases

Abstract

The fine structure of bronchial epithelium in thirt!,-six patients. thirty-one men and five women. suffering from chronic obstructive pneumonopathy or bronchial carcinoma was studied. No remarkable alterations were found with electron microscopy. in most non-smokers in contrast to the smokers who presented destruction of tlie epithelial cells and loss of thc cilia or many pathological cilia with an abnormal microt~~bular configuration and irregular orientation. The severity. however. of the alterations was not related to the severity of smoking and to the presence of bronchial cancer.