Ultrastructural of the bronchial epithelium in chronic inflammation

Light-optic and electron microscopic study of the bronchial biopsy specimens from 208 patients with primary and secondary chronic bronchitis was carried out. Variants of the bronchial epithelium states were described and classified according to characteristics of differentiation processes. As a result, groups with relatively normal structure, with deviated differentiation processes (hyperplasia of goblet glandular cells, hyperplasia of basal epithelial cells, hypoplasia and degeneration of goblet glandular cells), with incomplete differentiation processes (proliferative transformation and transitory state), and with altered differentiation processes (squamous metaplasia and atrophy) were described. These variants of the bronchial epithelium states are not only indicative of different levels of change or structural disorders, but may also represent a dynamic scheme of its consecutive changes during the development of chronic inflammatory process.