The assessment of tobacco smoke toxicity in organ culture. II. Ultrastructural studies on the immediate response of foetal rabbit tracheal epithelium to short-term exposures of whole smoke.

Foetal rabbit tracheal organ cultures were exposed under defined conditions to whole cigarette smoke and fixed immediately for electron microscopy. After an exposure to 4 or 8 puffs, epithelial intercellular spaces were enlarged, the apical portion of many cells bulged out into the lumen and many cilia were swollen. An exposure to 12 puffs produced a breakdown of the epithelium.