Alveolar lipoproteinosis

Lead sulphide, 6 times 15 mg given intratrache-ally to rats, was phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages inducing foamy cytoplasm within two months (Kissler 1983). Alveolar lipoproteinosis occurred 6 months after intratracheal instillation of 50 mg PbS (Rosmanith et al. 1989). 

Rubinstein I, Mullen JB, Hoffstein V. Morphologic diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary alveolar lipoproteinosis-revisited. Arch Intern Med 1988 I48(4) 813-816. 

Yousem SA. Alveolar lipoproteinosis in lung allograft recipients. Hum Pathol 1997 28(12) 1383-1386. 

Prolonged inhalation of dusts by humans (156), rodents (157,158), and other species (159,160) is associated with an increase in the number of type II cells and increased secretion of surfactant. The stimulation of surfactant appears to be directly related to the toxicity of the dust. It may be so florid, as in acute silicosis, that flooding of the alveolar spaces with surfactant lipids and associated proteins may occur, a condition known as alveolar lipoproteinosis (156). In experimental lipoproteinosis in the rat, the major lipid component is disaturated phosphatidylcholine (157), but all lipid fractions are increased. In the sheep model of experimental silicosis, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylinositol, showed the greatest increases following silica exposure (159). The excess production of surfactant in response to silica dust may be an adaptive response, perhaps to reduce particle cytotoxicity or to compensate for oxidant-induced lipid peroxidation (147,161). 

Figure 11.6 Overview of the lung section of (a) control rat and (b) rat exposed to 2.5 mgm MWCNT. (c) is a detail view of focal granulomatous inflammation observed in a rat exposed to 0.1 mg m MWCNT, and (d) in a rat exposed to 2.5 mg m" MWCNT. (e) Lung section of a rat exposed to 2.5 mg m showing intra-alveolar eosinophilic granular material which was diagnosed as lipoproteinosis. (f) This intra-alveolar eosinophilic granular material was PAS-positive. Reproduced from L. Ma-Hock et aL, Inhalation toxicity of multiwall carbon nanotubes in rats exposed for 3 months, Toxicol. Sci, 2009,112, 2, with permission from Oxford University Press. ...

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