Experimental “Acute” Silicosis

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Abstract
The lungs of three species of rodents exposed for 115 days to high concentrations of fine quartz dust showed the following features: Pulmonary consolidation caused by air spaces filled either with masses of macrophages (desquamative pneumonitis) or with proteinaceous cellular debris (alveolar proteinosis) or both. The proteinaceous debris contained finely divided lipidic material and cholesterol needles. The macrophages and the proteinaceous material contained high concentrations of quartz dust. Silicotic nodulation was either absent or scanty and that present was immature. Although focally some cellular septal thickening was present, alveolar walls showed generally little reaction to the presence of quartz dust. Tracheobronchial nodes contained much quartz dust but without evincing the dense fibrosis typical of silicosis. An explanation is proposed based on the association of lipids with the quartz dust particles rendering the latter nonwettable.