오존노출 후 백서 기도점막의 형태학적 변화

Morphologic Changes of Airway Mucosa after Ozone Exposure in Rats

Objectives : This study was designed to compare the morphological changes in the nasal, tracheal and main bronchial mucosa in rats exposed to 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 ppm ozone for 7 days, 6 hours per day. Materials and Methods : We observed the nasal, tracheal and main bronchial mucosa in rats exposed to 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 ppm ozone for 7days, 6hours per day with LM, SEM and TEM. Results : In light microscopy, influx of inflammatory cells, epithelial hyperplasia, loss of cilia and increased goblet cells were observed in all rats except those exposed to 0.3 ppm. these findings increased with the increase of ozone concentration, but there were no significant differences among the nasal, tracheal and main bronchial mucosa in rats exposed to the same ozone concentration. In scanning electron microscopy, a loss of cilia was observed in rats exposed to 0.3 ppm in some sections and 0.6 ppm and 1.2 ppm in all sections. In transmission electron microscopy, vacuolization of epithelial cells was observed in rats exposed to 0.3 ppm in some sections and 0.6 ppm in all sections. These results suggest that electron microscopic observation is necessary to study morphology of airway mucosa in rats exposed to ozone below 0.3 ppm. And also the morphological changes in nasal septal epithelium may reflect those of tracheal and bronchial epithelium after high concentration ozone-exposure.