[Electron microscopic study of the pathogenesis of experimental lipid pneumonia].

Different stages of lipoid pneumonia development provoked by mineral oil aerosole in white mice have been studied by electron microscopy and histochemistry. The first changes are most pronounced in blood capillaries. Foreign body material is actively absorbed by interstitial mononuclears and alveolar macrophages. However, its active digestion is observed only in the cytoplasm of alveolar macrophages that show off in abundance in early granuloma. Subsequently, fibroblasts are concentrated in the interstitium and small granulomas that can produce atelectasis and pneumosclerosis.