A morphology core will be established to offer investigators in the Pulmonary SCOR the opportunity to utilize modern light and electron microscopic procedures to address relevant questions essential to their research goals. There essentially are six different projects with which the morphology core will interact. In Project #5 (Role of oxidant injury in asbestos-related lung injury and fibrosis-Mossman) perfusion-fixed sections of lungs from asbestos-exposed and control rats will be analyzed by light microscopy for a quantitative grading of fibrotic lesions, and by electron microscopy for a morphometric analysis of alterations in cells of the parenchyma at early, middle and late time points in the development of asbestos inhalation-induced fibrosis. Similar light and electron microscopic studies will be carried out on cristobalite-exposed rat lungs (Project #7: Absher-Pulmonary responses to silicon dioxides) as well as evaluation of silica particles in lavaged alveolar macrophages by scanning electron microscopy combined with X-ray dispersive energy spectrometry. In Project #8 (Endothelial-smooth muscle cell interactions in vascular remodelling-Evans) morphometric and autoradiographic studies of orientation and proliferation will be carried out on pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cells from rats exposed to high oxygen. For projects #'s 9 and 10 (Low-Epithelial cell transition in normal and abnormal lung remodeling; the myofibroblast in pulmonary fibrosis, respectively) and Project #4 (Inflammatory mediators in asbestos-related injury-Kagan) the core will carry out transmission electron microscopic studies of epithelial and interstitial cells, both in situ and in cell culture. In addition, sophisticated ultrastructural immunohistochemistry will be utilized to study epithelial cell intermediate filament types, interstitial cell (fibroblast and myofibroblast) associations with components of the extracellular matrix, and alveolar macrophage Ia antigen expression. In Project #11 (Immune modulation of fibroblast function-Kelley) light microscopic histopathological evaluation of rat lungs will be carried out. Centralization of facilities and techniques, as well as documented collaborative interest on the part of the core director in many of the individual projects, will be of distinct advantage in providing several projects within the pulmonary SCOR an additional experimental approach (morphology) to address specific project goals.
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