Effects of hyperoxia on alveolar permeability of neutropenic rabbits.
We investigated whether neutrophil suppression would prevent the early hyperoxic injury to the rabbit alveolar epithelium. Rabbits received a single intravenous injection of either nitrogen mustard (2 mg/kg) or saline and were exposed to 100% C2 for 64 h. At the end of the hyperoxic exposure, there were 20 +/- 7 neutrophils/ml blood in the nitrogen mustard group vs. 5,935 +/- 1,174 in the control group (means +/- SE; P less than 0.05). The corresponding numbers in lung extravascular tissue, expressed per high-power field, were 0.37 +/- 7 and 5.9 +/- 0.35, respectively (P less than 0.05). At this time, the rate constants of solute flux for 57Co-vitamin B12 (r = 6.5 A) and 131I-cytochrome c (r = 17 A), across the alveolar epithelium, were 33 +/- 5 (min-1) and 7 +/- 2 for the nitrogen mustard and 29 +/- 5 and 6 +/- 1 for the saline group, respectively. These variables were ninefold higher than their corresponding values in animals breathing air. We concluded that neutrophils do not play a significant role during the early stages of sublethal hyperoxic injury to rabbit alveolar epithelium.
D000380:Agranulocytosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000818:Animals; D004848:Epithelium / Q000502:physiology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D008466:Mechlorethamine; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000633:toxicity*; D010539:Permeability; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011817:Rabbits
D008466:Mechlorethamine; D010100:Oxygen