Contribution to the study of the reticulo endothelial origin of dust cells or alveolar macrophagi: VI. Some histochemical aspects in the lungs of normal guinea pigs and others submitted to acetylcholine, histamine, or anaphylactic shock, and so-called experimental asthma

The alveolar macrophagi or dust cells from the lungs of control guinea pigs and others submitted to different kinds of shocks, were studied, using histochemical techniques as the green methyl pyronine, extraction of ribonucleic acid by perchloric acid, metachromatic reactions, and the periodic-leukofuchsine acid reaction. It was shown that the said cells were positive only when the green methyl pyronine method was used, thereby proving a high cytoplasmic content of ribonucleic acid. As these red alveolar macrophagi increased slightly in the animals submitted to shock, in the same way as other elements of the reticular endothelial system which take part in the formation of antibodies, they can probably be considered as of the same origin.