GOODPASTURES-SYNDROME IN AGING - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY ON THE RAT .2.

The following hypothesis is suggested: if a lung disease is induced in an adult rat, then its lung, in the senile age, will be different fro m what is considered to be a normal senile lung. In order to demonstra te this, the pulmonary state of two groups of old rats, one of which h ad suffered from Goodpasture's syndrome in the adult age has been asse ssed morphometrically. Fifty-three Wistar rats were used. They were di vided into two groups: 1) healthy old rats; and 2) diseased old rats. Antipulmonary serum was administered to the latter and they were sacri ficed a year later. Making use of a computing system, we calculated th e following data for each group: the alveolar chord length, the alveol ar wall thickness and the surface of the bronchial-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT). The alveolar macrophages (AM) with haemosiderin which were found in the lung tissue were also counted and the percentage of goblet bronchial cells and that of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells was also assessed. From the results, the following points should be em phasized: in diseased old rats, an increase in the alveolar chord, a d ecrease in lymphocytes with an increase in the AM of the BAL, and a de crease in goblet cells and AM with haemosiderin occur, all of which ar e significant when these rats are compared to healthy old rats. From t his experiment it can be inferred that the lungs of the diseased old r ats are morphologically different from those of the healthy old rats; the findings cannot be related to an inflammatory process.