  We have studied a sample of 24 edge-on interacting galaxies and compared them
to edge-on isolated galaxies, to investigate the effects of tidal interaction
on disk thickening. We found that the ratio h/z of the radial exponential
scalelength h to the scale height z is about twice smaller for interacting
galaxies. This is found to be due both to a thickening of the plane, and to a
radial stripping or shrinking of the stellar disk. If we believe that any
galaxy experienced a tidal interaction in the past, we must conclude that
continuous gas accretion and subsequent star formation can bring back the ratio
h/z to higher values, in a time scale of 1 Gyr.
