Protection by N-acetylcysteine of the histopathological and cytogenetical damage produced by exposure of rats to cigarette smoke.

Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed whole-body to mainstream cigarette smoke (CS) once daily for 40 consecutive days. Such a treatment resulted in a significant decrease of body weight growth and in intense histopathological changes of terminal airways, including a severe inflammation of bronchial and bronchiolar mucosae, with multiple hyperplastic and metaplastic lesions and foci of micropapillomatous growth as well as emphysema, with extensive disruption of alveolar walls. All histopathological changes were efficiently prevented by the daily administration of the thiol N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) by gavage. Cytological and cytogenetical changes were monitored in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and bone marrow cells of groups of rats killed after 1, 3, 8, 28, or 40 days of treatment. From the first day of exposure, CS significantly enhanced the proportion of polymorphonucleates among BAL cells and the frequency of micronucleated (MN) bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes. After 8 days, a reduction was observed in the polychromatic/normochromatic erythrocytes ratio and an increase in the frequency of MN pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM) was also recorded, followed, after 28 days, by an increase of binucleated PAM. All these alterations immediately reached a plateau and persisted unchanged until the end of the experiment. NAC administration exhibited a significant and considerable protective effect towards the CS-induced alterations of BAL cellularity, the increase of MN PAM and bone marrow cytotoxicity.