A morphometric analysis of the male and female tracheal epithelium after experimental exposure to marijuana smoke.
Male and female rats were exposed to marijuana smoke that was generated from nonfiltered marijuana research cigarettes three times each day for 31 +/- 1 consecutive days. Morphometric analyses of the tracheal epithelium were made for the volume density of secretory cells in the trachal epithelium, volume density of glycoprotein in the secretory cells, and number of secretory cells per unit length of the tracheal epithelium. Glycol methacrylate sections of the trachea stained with a combined Alcian Blue and periodic acid-Schiff technique and hematoxylin permitted analysis of not only stained secretory cells and their glycoprotein composition but also unstained secretory cells, providing a complete profile of the total secretory cell population in the tracheal epithelium. Exposure to marijuana smoke resulted in an increase in the volume density of glycoprotein in the secretory cells in association with an increase in the number of stained secretory cells per unit length of epithelium and a shift in the secretory cell mucin production from periodic acid-Schiff-positive to the production of mixtures of periodic acid-Schiff-positive and Alcian Blue-positive glycoproteins. Exposure to marijuana smoke, however, decreased the volume density of total secretory cells and the number of unstained secretory cells. It appears that the increased number of stained secretory cells in marijuana smoke-exposed rats was the result of a conversion from unstained to stained secretory cells. Female rats demonstrated larger relative increases than male rats in the total glycoprotein in secretory cells, in the number of stained secretory cells, and a larger shift in glycoprotein composition after exposure to smoke.
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002188:Cannabis; D002452:Cell Count; D004848:Epithelium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D051381:Rats; D014132:Trachea / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
D006023:Glycoproteins