Effects of rice straw burning products on guinea pig lungs

This study aims to investigate rice open field burning and their deleterious effects which has become an obvious problem in Egypt, which apparently affects the Egyptians´ lungs and increased hospital admission for pulmonary complaints. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate this phenomenon by using guinea pigs which were subjected to rice straws burning products (RSBP). The effects of RSBP on differential leukocytic count in lung lavages, histopathological examination, malondialdehyde (MDA) content in lung tissues (marker of lipid peroxidation) and nitric oxide (NO) content in lung tissues were studied. Results of this study demonstrated that RSBP induced pulmonary emphysematous lesions are progressive with subsequent smoke exposures together with the sensitization of the lung in the present model. Changes in the count of macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of guinea pigs lungs compared to normal lavages. RSBP exposure has a potent potential capacity for being a source of reactive oxygen species and possibly oxidizing species which can lead to decrease nitric oxide content in lung tissue. Key words: Rice straws smoke guinea pigs total leukocytic count Neutrophil and Eosinophils count macrophages count nitric oxide content malondialdehyde content lung histopathological examination.