Application of linear integration in the morphometric study of mild and severe pulmonary alveolar injury

In this study we applied linear integration morphometry to characterize the pulmonary alveolar reaction to toxic injury and to study possible relationships between the major tissue and cell compartments of alveolar tissue, normal and injured. Acute alveolar injury of mild and severe intensity was induced in Swiss-Webster mice by the ip administration of the chemicals diquat (4 mg/kg) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT; 400 mg/kg). Animals were sacrificed at Days 1 and 2 after diquat treatment and at Days 1, 3, and 5 after BHT treatment. Sampling and analysis of alveolar tissue were conducted at both levels of light and electron microscopy. Thickness distributions of arithmetic and reciprocal intercepts, as well as the arithmetic (tau) and harmonic (tau h) mean thicknesses, were established for the following alveolar compartments: septum, alveolo-capillary barrier (ACB), type I and total epithelia, capillary endothelium, and interstitium. A relative measure of the pulmonary diffusion capacity and the capillary load of alveolar septa were also determined. The parameters calculated from these thickness distributions, such as their slopes, percentages of thin intercepts, and tau/tau h ratios, proved very sensitive and useful in the detection and characterization of morphological alterations in the type I epithelial and capillary endothelial cells following either mild or severe alveolar injury. The epithelial, endothelial, and interstitial layers of pulmonary septa were all characterized by their own pattern of structural changes, so that it proved impossible to relate them in a simple way to the tissue reaction, which can be easily studied at the light microscopic level. Linear integration morphometry thus proved very useful as a morphometric approach to the study of pulmonary alveolar injury and repair.