[Characteristics of the intrapulmonary cytogram in compensatory lung hypertrophy]

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed on days 1, 3, 5 after left-side extirpation of the lung in albino random-bred adult male rats. BAL cell composition was studied. Compensatory lung growth was shown to be accompanied by restoration of BAL total cell number. BAL comprised 81.7% of macrophages, 15.6% of neutrophils and 2.5% of lymphocytes. The number of neutrophils was high (over 20%) in animals with postoperative pneumonia.