Chronic exposure of rats to cotton-mill-room noise changes the cell composition of the tracheal epithelium

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2002

Autores

Oliveira, MJR (Autor) ICBAS; Pereira, AS (Autor) ICBAS; Guimaraes, L (Autor) Outra; Freitas, D (Autor) Outra; A Carvalho (Autor) FEUP; Grande, NR (Autor) Outra; AP Águas (Autor) ICBAS

Revista

Título: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Vol. 44 Nº 12

Páginas: 1135-1142

ISSN: 1076-2752

Editora: Wolters Kluwer Health

Indexação

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 14 Citações

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias > Outras ciências da engenharia e tecnologias

CORDIS: Ciências Tecnológicas > Engenharia > Engenharia biomédica

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-00F-GYV

DOI: 10.1097/00043764-200212000-00007

Abstract (EN): The work environment of cotton mill rooms of modern textile plants is characterized by noise pollution. We have taped and reproduced this noisy environment to study its effects on experimentally exposed rats. Because we have previously documented that chronic noise causes alterations in the respiratory epithelium, we have focused our investigation on the morphology of the tracheal lining. Wistar rats were exposed to the textile-type noise from 1 up to 7 months, with an average 40 hours weekly exposure of the animals. The rats were sacrificed monthly and the tracheas were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to quantify the areas of the airway lining that were covered by ciliated, serous or other cells of the epithelium. We found that noise exposure of the rats caused a significant loss of tracheal ciliated cells; an increased density of serous cells on the epithelium balanced this change. This modification of the rat trachea was already established after 1 month of noise treatment of the animals; it did not change significantly throughout the 7-month course of the herein investigation. Loss of ciliated cells was more intense in areas of the tracheal epithelium located between the regions of cartilage rings. We conclude that the ciliated cell is an elective target for damage caused on the respiratory epithelium by the workplace noise occurring in cotton mill rooms. This modification of the respiratory epithelium is likely to impair clearance of the airways since this function depends on the activity of ciliated cells.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 8