Ultrastructural study of bronchial epithelium in chronic respiratory diseases.

The fine structure of bronchial epithelium in thirty-six patients, thirty-one men and five women, suffering from chronic obstructive pneumonopathy or bronchial carcinoma was studied. No remarkable alterations were found with electron microscopy, in most non-smokers in contrast to the smokers who presented destruction of the epithelial cells and loss of the cilia or many pathological cilia with an abnormal microtubular configuration and irregular orientation. The severity, however, of the alterations was not related to the severity of smoking and to the presence of bronchial cancer.