Individuals who smoke are at risk of developing COPD (chronic obstructive pulmon
ID: 3520460 • Letter: I
Question
Individuals who smoke are at risk of developing COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The tracheal cells can change into stratifled squamous epithelia. What type of epithelia does the trachea normally have and why would this epithelial cellchange be dangerous? Maximum number of characters (including HTML tags added by text editor): 32,000 Show Rc?Text fdoor (rd charactercount) Save Submit for Grading Pawered by Sakal Copyrigh 2003-2018 he Apere Foundacion Al rightsresved Partions ef Sakal ane copyrighted by other parties an described in 5Explanation / Answer
The trachea is a secretory in nature , possessing many exocrine glands and being lined by a pseudostratified columnar epithelium in which ciliated and mucous cells predominate. the ciliated epithelial cells are interspersed with globlet mucosal cells which are covered by microvilli. globlets cells produce mucous which is secreted through the microvilli and tiny particles present in inhaled air are trapped. the ciliated cells move the mucous upwards and out of the respiratoy tract, thus cleaning the pathway
Cigarette smoke contains many harmful chemicals. The cells lining the trachea (windpipe), bronchi and bronchioles (the branches inside the lungs) are damaged by cigarette smoke. These epithelial cells have tiny hair-like cilia on their surface. Normally these cilia move to push mucus out of the lungs. Damaged cells cannot do this, leading to a build-up of mucus and a smokers’ cough.
Cigarette smoking is associated with profound changes in mucous production mechanisms. Chronic exposure to this smoke causes metaplastic alterations to the respiratory mucosa with an increase in the number and size of goblet cells and consequent increase in upper airway secretion.
Cigarette smoke causes a reduction in cell viability and induction of apoptosis in respiratory hair cells, opposite mitogenic effects or pro-apoptotic depending on the cigarette smoke concentration or even an impairment on epithelial regeneration upon injury. Cigarette smoke cause morphological alterations to the epithelium of the entire respiratory tract, from hyperplasia in lower concentrations, all the way to loss of cilia and metaplasia with keratinization in higher concentrations, and also submucosal thickening and inflammation with neutrofilic and mononuclear inflammatory cells infiltrate.