Studies of alveolar cell morphometry and mass clearance in the rat lung following inhalation of an enriched uranium dioxide aerosol

Seventy-three rats were exposed to an aerosol of enriched uranium dioxide (UO2), giving initial lung burdens of 26 to 447 µg at 6 days post-inhalation (PI). At 7 days PI 35 of these rats were further exposed to thermalised neutrons at a fluence of 1 x 1012 neutrons CM−2. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the clearance rate of the UO2 particles from the lung, up to 590 days PI. The particles cleared relatively slowly over this period with a retention halftime in the lung of 160 to 176 days.