ALVEOLAR QUANTITATION AND LUNG HETEROGENE ITY - FREQUENCY OF ABNORMALVALUES IN AN EUROPEAN BRED STRAIN OF HAMSTERS (MESOCRICETUS-AURATUS)

The golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is often used as an animal m odel for studying the lung emphysema. This species was originally chos en by american researchers. The choice was made for economic and pract ical reasons but rested upon the scientific assertion that the hamster does not develop emphysema spontaneously. To our knowledge, no invest igation has been made systematically in a population of presumed healt hy hamsters. It seemed to us worth investigating lung abnormalities in a lot of hamsters taken from an european-bred strain. The alveolar li near intercept was measured by microscopic quantitation and the lung h eterogeneity was calculated for each hamster. Normal values were estab lished for the whole population. A statistical test was used to discri minate those hamsters whose lung characteristics were abnormal. Abnorm al lungs were characterized into three types : abnormal lung heterogen eity with abnormal oversized alveoli (7.1 % of the hamsters). localize d alveolar dilations or localized wall ruptures (7.1 %). abnormal over sized alveoli in a lung presenting a normal heterogeneity (2.4 % of th e hamsters). So, 83 % of the hamsters presented a normal lung with reg ard to the alveolar dimensions and the heterogeneity.