Ultrastructural and ultracytochemical changes in the lungs of rats with diabetes mellitus

: Diabetes mellitus was produced in Rats by means of a single streptozotocin injection. The evolution of the lung ultrastructure and of the state of the alveolar epithelium glycocalix was followed during two months. Among the different cellular types of the lung parenchyma, the main alterations were revealed in the pneumocytes of type II. They consisted in severe enlargement of the endoplasmatic rough net channels, diminution of the quantity of the lamellated corpuscles and delay of their output out of the cytoplasm, the reduction of microvilli and thinning of the glycocalix. As an answer to the epithelium alteration, a regeneration of the type II pneumocytes was discovered. A structural insufficiency of the phagocyte system--polymorph nuclear leucocytes and alveolar macrophages was noted.