Morphogenesis and pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases. XVI. The influence of drugs on the stereotyped development and cellular kinetics of experimental lung granulomas.

The stereotyped development and the cellular kinetics of lung granulomas experimentally-induced in rabbits by an intravenous injection of the complete Freund adjuvant with addition of human gammaglobulin, were studied under the influence of hydrocortisone acetate, rifampicin, heparin and phenobarbital. As in a previous study using actinomycin and puromycin, the analysed drugs delayed up to inhibition (hydrocortisone) the development of lung granulomas which remained small, unfused, without epithelioidosis; the primary and secondary immune responses were more or less influenced up to their suppression. The delivery of macrophages was reduced by hydrocortisone, but enhanced by heparin and phenobarbital. The latter induced a persistent intragranulomatous granulocytosis, expressing the repair of decreased activities of dehydrogenases and especially of NADP-NADPH-oxidases. The action of these drugs was phasic, their intervention being active only during the cellular phase of granulomas; fibrillogenesis was influenced only indirectly. Extrapolation to humans of these results suggests the use of these drugs during the cellular phase of chronic pneumonitic lesions and suppression of the immune component of the inflammatory processes.