Aspirin effect on early and late changes in acute lung injury in sheep.
OBJECTIVE
There have been several studies that have already explored the potential beneficial role of cyclo-oxygenase (CO) inhibitors on oleic acid (OA)-induced lung injury in different species. These studies report no significant effect of CO inhibition, though thromboxane B2 (TxB2) was effectively blocked. However, recent studies indicate that pre-treatment with aspirin (ASA) preserve gas exchange in OA lung injury in dogs. Aim of our study has been to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of the pre-treatment with low doses of ASA on gas exchange, hemodynamics, respiratory mechanics, prostanoids and lung histology in OA-induced lung injury in sheep.


METHODS
0.09 ml/kg of OA was administered into the right atrium of 14 anaesthetized sheep. Six received a bolus of ASA (10 mg/kg i.v.) 30 min before OA, the others saline as placebo.


RESULTS
Pulmonary and tissue gas exchange, pulmonary and systematic hemodynamics, respiratory system mechanics, TxB2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, leukocytes and platelets concentrations were measured throughout the subsequent 3 h and lung histology was effected at end-experiment. The principal findings of our study are: 1) ASA reduces OA-induced early pulmonary vasoconstriction and bronchoconstriction, parallelled by a suppression of TxB2 generation; 2) the late increase in pulmonary artery pressure and airway resistance due to OA is not inhibited by ASA; 3) the early disturbance in pulmonary gas exchange is reduced by ASA, whereas the late severe deterioration is exaggerated by ASA; 4) the stability of tissue exchange ratio (R) at approximately 1 in ASA-group compared to its fall to approximately 0.7 in controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that ASA: 1) is only effective to treat the very transient TxB2-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction resulting in hydrostatic edema, and it is ineffective, even accentuates, the subsequent major pulmonary endothelial cell injury leading to alveolar flooding that is unrelated to TxB2; 2) has a transient protective effect on the TxB2-induced early bronchospasm; 3) has a biphasic behaviour on gas exchange, with a benefit which lasts only one hour and then results in a worse gas exchange; 4) has an immediate, stabilizing, persisting effect on R, contrasting with its transient effect on pulmonary hemodynamics and PaO2.
Chelucci
G L
GL
Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Clinica, Università di Firenze, Italia.
Boncinelli
S
S
Marsili
M
M
Lorenzi
P
P
Allegra
A
A
Linden
M
M
Chelucci
A
A
Merciai
V
V
Cresci
F
F
Rostagno
C
C
D015121:6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001241:Aspirin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001784:Blood Gas Analysis; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019301:Oleic Acid; D009829:Oleic Acids; D011292:Premedication; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange / Q000187:drug effects*; D012119:Respiration / Q000187:drug effects; D012756:Sheep; D013929:Thromboxane B2 / Q000378:metabolism
D009829:Oleic Acids; D019301:Oleic Acid; D013929:Thromboxane B2; D015121:6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha; D001241:Aspirin