Influence of tobacco smoke on gas stabilization in newborn rat lung

During gestation, the lungs of the foetus are filled with a fluid produced by differentiating and maturing epithelium, and primary pneumocytes occupy almost the entire terminal lung space. Around day 16–17 of gestation in rats, there is an explosion of differentiation and maturation of secondary pneumocytes, and the production of surfactant begins. The key elements for the stabilization of gases in the newborn lung are the structure of the lung and the action of surfactant. In 1995, we found that surfactant also acts in the drying of the lungs during the first few minutes after delivery (Biczysko et al., 1995). The role of this surface-active material, stored in lamellar bodies, is to enable the transport of fluid from the alveolar lumen into the capillaries (Bland et al., 1989) and allow gas exchange in the lungs after birth. Maternal tobacco smoking has been reported to retard pulmonary development in the foetus. Our aim was to examine ultrastructurally drying of the lung in newborn rats of dams exposed to tobacco smoke.