Pulmonary macrophage mobilization in cigarette smoke-exposed mice after halothane anesthesia.

The effects of halothane anesthesia on pulmonary tissue and lung macrophage population were evaluated in normal and in C57BL/6 mice exposed to cigarette smoke twice daily for one year. Morphologic assessment of pulmonary tissue revealed no lung abnormalities that could be attributed solely to halothane anesthesia. However, in animals that were exposed to smoke and subsequently halothane anesthesia, airways cilia were shorter in stature and fewer in number. Disorientation of ciliary basal bodies was also observed. Airway macrophages in smoke-exposed animals subjected to halothane anesthesia were, for the most part, larger in size and contained more lysosomes and inclusions than phagocytes in airways of all other animals. Smoke inhalation alone caused a significant increase in number of lung parenchymal macrophages when compared to the number of these cells in sham-treated and control animals. However, the total macrophage population was significantly greater in lungs of smoke-exposed mice 48 hr after anesthesia than in lungs of smoke-exposed mice not subjected to halothane anesthesia and to those of sham-treated and control animals that were or were not exposed to the anesthetic. Airway macrophage numbers were significantly elevated in smoke-exposed mice 48 hr after halothane when compared to those of all other groups. Conversely, the number of parenchymal macrophages decreased in lungs of these mice. It was proposed that in smoke-exposed mice subjected to halothane anesthesia, ciliary function is impaired and phagocytes are mobilized from alveoli into the airways.