Hyperoxia: A Stereologic Ultrastructural Examination of Its Influence on Cytoplasmic Components of the Pulmonary Granular Pneumocyte

We used the technique of lineal analysis to study the influence of 48 h of hyperoxia on cytoplasmic organelles of pulmonary granular pneumocytes with particular reference to their lamellar bodies. We undertook this study because lamellar bodies are considered to be storage granules for pulmonary surfactant and because we had found that hyperoxia decreased [¹⁴C]leucine incorporation into protein of a surface-active lung fraction.

We found that for lamellar bodies the percent cytoplasmic volume was 12.8±1.5 (mean±SEM) and 8.4±2.2, the organelle area (μm²) per organelle was 0.98±0.13 and 0.62±0.10 and the organelle volume (μm²) was 0.35±0.04 and 0.18±0.01, for air- and oxygen-exposed rats, respectively, (P=<0.05). The surface density of the lamellar body membrane was 7.05±0.47 and 9.36±0.96 (P=<0.05) for air- and oxygen-exposed rats. There were no differences in lamellar body number per cytoplasmic area or per pneumocyte between air- and oxygen-exposed rats. There were no statistical differences in these parameters between mitochondria of air- or oxygen-exposed rats. The surface density of the rough endoplasmic reticulum was the same in both groups.

This study indicates that granular pneumocytes of rats exposed to hyperoxia have the same number of lamellar bodies as control rats but the lamellar bodies are smaller. This findings in consistent with the hypothesis that the hyperoxia-induced decrease in protein synthesis by lung represents at least in part a decreased synthesis of the secretory lipoprotein-pulmonary surfactant.

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