Centrilobular emphysema experimentally induced by cadmium chloride aerosol.

Rats were exposed to a polydisperse aerosol of cadmium chloride solution for one hour on 5, 10, or 15 occasions. The animals developed acute vascular congestion and alveolar hemorrhage followed by polymorphonuclear cell infiltration. A granulation tissue response which tended to be localized around respiratory bronchioles subsequently occurred. By the tenth day after exposure, the granulation tissue had undergone rapid transformation to fine scar tissue with dilatation, distortion, and destruction of adjacent alveoli. The appearance of the lesions resembled human centrilobular emphysema. The severity of the emphysema as measured by the mean linear intercept method was related to the number of exposures to cadmium aerosol. Measurement of tissue cadmium confirmed accumulation of cadmium in the lungs of exposed animals; the concentration of cadmium was proportional to the number of exposures. It has been previously shown in autopsy studies that there is an increased cadmium content in the kidneys and livers ...