COMPARISON OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR-COMPONENTS OF BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE FLUID HARVESTED FROM DIFFERENT SEGMENTS OF THE EQUINE LUNG

A comparison was made of the cellular and molecular components of bron choalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) harvested from the left and right diap hragmatic lobes, the accessory lobe of the right lung and the apical l obe of the left lung, of seven control horses and six horses with symp tomatic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Neither control nor symptomatic COPD affected horses showed significant regional diffe rences in BALF recovery volumes, total and differential BALF cell coun ts, albumen adjusted total and absolute BALF cell counts, total and ab solute pulmonary epithelial lining fluid (PELF) cell counts, and BALF albumen and urea concentrations. This suggests that the composition of PELF is uniform throughout the lungs of normal horses and horses with symptomatic COPD and that a single BALF sample is representative of t he entire lung in these horses.