Pulmonary Macrophage Clearance

Abstract
Estimates of the number and the cytologic eel! types transferred from the lungs to the oropharynx of rats are derived within a factor of 2 by the combined use of an esophageal sputum-collection procedure and mucolytic digestion technique which utilizes N-acety-L-cysteine (NAC). The hourly clearance of pulmonary phagocytes to the oropharynx was estimated to range between 1.24 × 106; Geometric Standard Deviation (GSD) 1.3 and 2.47 × 106; GSD 1.3.