Biochemical alterations of lung structure as predictors of chronic lung disease.

This presentation reports on newer animal models and techniques that we and others have developed. These models attempt to predict in a reasonable experimental time frame the occurrence of structural changes in the lungs that are the basis of various chronic diseases. Since the major chronic diseases of the lung parenchyma involving what we think of as well-understood structural changes are pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, I will discuss in detail ways of looking at effects of air pollutants on lung collagen and lung elastin metabolism.