Neuroendocrinelike (small granule) epithelial cells of the lung.

The presence of neuroendocrinelike epithelial cells in the lung of numerous species has been demonstrated by light and electron microscopy. Histochemical methods used to identify these cells have included staining with silver, amine-type fluorescence (APUD cell), periodic acid Schiff (PAS)-lead hematoxylin, and immunohistochemical localization of neuron-specific enolase. Cytoplasmic dense core vesicles (70-200 nm in diameter) have served as the major ultrastructural characteristic. Lung neuroendocrinelike cells have been shown to occur in fetal and adult mammals as solitary-type cells or as distinct organoids known as neuroepithelial bodies ( NEBs ). Although the frequency of both populations is considered low, solitary-type cells with dense-core granules can be found in as high as 5% of epithelial cells in the cricoid region of the guinea-pig larynx. The solitary cells can be found throughout the airways of mammals, whereas the NEBs are confined to the intrapulmonary airways. Unmyelinated fibers have been traced from the lamina propria and into the NEB, where they ramified between the component cells of the NEB. The function of lung neuroendocrinelike cells is not known, but morphological and cytochemical studies suggest that the NEBs are intrapulmonary chemoreceptors that can respond to changes in airway gas composition. Hypoxia or hypercapnia has been shown to decrease the amine cytofluorescence in these organoids and apparently to increase the exocytosis of dense core vesicles from the basal region of the cell. Immunohistochemical studies have suggested that some lung epithelial cells may contain a known neuropeptide(s), but further investigation is needed to confirm the presence of such compounds in lung neuroendocrinelike cells and their physiochemical properties. Apparent hyperplasia of lung neuroendocrinelike cells can occur readily in hamsters treated with diethylnitrosamine. It has been postulated that human lung tumors with endocrinelike properties, namely, bronchial carcinoids and lung small cell carcinomas, may originate from lung neuroendocrinelike cells. However, a more plausible explanation, based on cytokinetic studies of epithelial neuroendocrinelike cells in the lung and other organs, is that these cells originate from a nonneuroendocrine population. Interaction of such a progenitor cell population with selected carcinogens may lead to stimulation of the rate of normal differentiation or, alternately, to selection of an abnormal route of differentiation that possesses a neuroendocrine phenotype.