Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) were compared to those from nonsmoking and smoking normal volunteers to identify determinants of BAL cellularity in IPF. The study subjects included 83 patients with IPF, 111 nonsmoking volunteers, and 19 smoking volunteers. IPF subjects had an overall increase in the total cells per milliliter of BAL fluid. However, smoking volunteers had even higher concentrations than patients with IPF. IPF patents had a higher concentration of alveolar macrophages than nonsmoking volunteers and a higher concentration of both neutrophils and eosinophils than normal volunteers with no attention given to smoking status. Current smokers had a marked increase in the macrophage content of lavage fluid. A marginal relationship was noted between the concentration of BAL macrophages and both pack years of smoking and two measures of lung function. No clear association was manifested between the BAL macrophages and either the type of immunosuppressive therapy or other specific measures of lung function. The authors conclude that cigarette smoking influences the inflammatory changes in the alveoli and possibly the airways of patients with IPF. The authors suggest that smoking may contribute to the development and/or progression of this disease.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.