Silica-induced hypertrophy of type II cells in the lungs of rats.

Several investigators have reported the appearance of hypertrophic type II cells in the lungs of silica-treated rats. The purpose of this study was to isolate and characterize these hypertrophic type II cells. Lungs were digested with trypsin and the released cells were separated by using a flow gradient during centrifugal elutriation. Type II cells from control lungs were distributed in the flow gradient as a single population, whereas type II cells from the lungs of silica-treated rats had a bimodal distribution suggesting the presence of two distinct populations of type II cells; one of these populations appeared hypertrophic (type IIB) and the other appeared normal (type II cells; one of these populations appeared hypertrophic (type IIB) and the other appeared normal (type IIA). These two populations of type II cells from silica-treated rats differed significantly in cell size and their lamellar body content. The mean volume of type IIA and type IIB cells was 350 +/- 38 micron 3 and 523 +/- 29 micron 3, respectively. The mean number of lamellar bodies in type IIA and type IIB cells was 77 +/- 53 and 131 +/- 84 per cell, respectively. The mean volume of lamellar bodies was 0.39 +/- 0.09 micron 3 in type IIA cells and 0.66 +/- 0.10 micron 3 in type IIB cells. Type IIA cells were not significantly different from type II cells from the lungs of untreated rats. The distribution of type II cells from silica-treated lungs was such that 2 weeks after a single intratracheal injection of silica (10 mg/rat) type IIB cells accounted for 39.2 +/- 6.4% of the total type II cells recovered after centrifugal elutriation. The general morphological appearance of the isolated type IIA and type IIB cells was similar to that observed in type II cells isolated from untreated rats. These data indicate that hypertrophic type II cells may be isolated from the lungs of silica-treated rats and separated from normal type II cells thus allowing the role of these unusual type II cells in lung injury and repair to be investigated.