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Two salient features of the pulmonary response to reactive oxidant air pollutants such as ozone are the heterogeneity of response by site within the respiratory tract and the development of tolerance to injury with repeated exposure. The purpose of this study was to establish whether the development of tolerance to long-term exposure is associated with changes in the tracheobronchial epithelium. Male F344-N rats were exposed to 0, 0.12, 0.5, or 1.0 ppm ozone 6 hours/day for 5 days/week for 20 months and killed 1 week post-exposure. Samples for light microscopic morphometry were obtained by microdissection from each infusion-fixed trachea and left lung lobe and included: 1) a cranial bronchus with short path length (generation no. 4 to 5) and small diameter; 2) a central bronchus with short path length (generation no. 4 to 5) and large diameter; and 3) a caudal bronchus with long path length (generation no. 10 to 12) and small diameter. In addition, three sites within the central acinus were examined from cranial, central, and caudal regions. These sites included terminal bronchiole, 0.5 to 1 mm proximal to terminal bronchiole and bronchiolarized alveolar duct. Intraepithelial mucin storage (AB/PAS-positive material quantified by image analysis) within the trachea decreased with dose. Mucin storage was unchanged in the central bronchus, increased threefold with dose in the caudal bronchus, and was six times higher in the cranial bronchus at 1.0 ppm ozone. Epithelial composition was unchanged in trachea or any bronchi; however, we noted a significant dose-dependent increase in nonciliated cell mass and volume fraction in terminal bronchioles in all three regions. There was also a significant increase in nonciliated cell mass in the bronchiolarized alveolar ducts. Bronchiolar nonciliated cells were identified greater than fourfold further into alveolar ducts in 1.0 ppm exposed than in 0 ppm animals. Nonciliated cells occurred almost 200 microns deeper into alveolar ducts in cranial regions than in caudal regions. We conclude: 1) that the development of tolerance to injury produced by long-term exposure to ozone involves changes in airway epithelium and 2) that these changes are site specific and involve alterations in both secretory activity and cellular composition.

Recently, we reported that exposure to ambient concentrations of ozone, near the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard (0.12 ppm), induced significant nasal epithelial lesions in a non-human primate, the bonnet monkey. The present study defines the effects of ambient concentrations of ozone on the surface epithelium lining respiratory bronchioles and on the underlying bronchiolar interstitium in these same monkeys. Bonnet monkeys were exposed to filtered air or to 0.15 or 0.30 ppm ozone 8 hours/day for 6 or 90 days. At the end of exposures, monkeys were anesthetized and killed by exsanguination. Microdissected bronchiolar airways of infusion-fixed lungs were evaluated morphometrically by light microscopy and quantitatively by scanning and transmission electron microscopy for ozone-induced epithelial changes. Hyperplasia of nonciliated, cuboidal epithelial cells and intraluminal accumulation of macrophages characterized ozone-induced lesions in respiratory bronchioles. There were no significant differences in epithelial thickness or cell numbers among ozone-exposed groups. Ozone-exposed epithelium was composed of 80% cuboidal and 20% squamous cells compared with 40% cuboidal and 60% squamous cells in filtered air controls. In addition, the arithmetic mean thickness of the surface epithelium, a measure of tissue mass per unit area of basal lamina, was significantly increased in all of the ozone-exposed groups. The number of cuboidal epithelial cells per surface area of basal lamina was increased above control values by 780% after 6 days exposure to 0.15 ppm, 777% after 90 days to 0.15 ppm, and 996% after 90 days exposure to 0.30 ppm. There was also a significant ozone-induced increase in the thickness of the bronchiolar interstitium that was due to an increase in both cellular and acellular components. These results demonstrate that exposure to low ambient concentrations of ozone, near the current. National Ambient Air Quality Standard, induces pulmonary lesions in primates. The alterations do not appear to be concentration- or time-dependent, suggesting that the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard may be at or above the threshold for deep lung injury in primates.