Effect of high intra-alveolar O2 tensions on pulmonary circulation in perfused lungs of dogs

1965 ◽  
Vol 208 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. A. Cropp

The resistance to blood flow in the pulmonary circulation of dogs (PVR) increased when their lungs were ventilated with 95–100% oxygen and were perfused with blood that recirculated only through the pulmonary circulation; the systemic circulation was perfused independently. This increase in PVR occurred even when nerves were cut or blocked but was abolished by inhaled isopropylarterenol aerosol. Elevation of intra-alveolar Po2 without increase in pulmonary arterial blood Po2 was sufficient to increase pulmonary vascular resistance. The pulmonary venules or veins were thought to be the likely site of the constriction. These reactions were qualitatively similar to those produced by injection of serotonin or histamine into the pulmonary circulation. The time course of the response and failure to obtain it when the blood was perfused through the remainder of the body before it re-entered the pulmonary circulation are compatible with a theory that high intra-alveolar O2 tension activates a vasoconstrictor material in the pulmonary parenchyma.

1961 ◽  
Vol 200 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Harasawa ◽  
S. Rodbard

The effects of tetraethylammonium chloride (TEAC) and aminophylline on the pulmonary vascular resistance were studied in thoracotomized dogs. Pulmonary arterial blood flow and pressure, and systemic blood pressure were measured simultaneously. Both drugs showed marked hypotensive effects on the systemic vessels. In every instance pulmonary arterial pressures and blood flows were reduced by TEAC given via the pulmonary artery and increased by aminophylline. However, the calculated pulmonary vascular resistance remained essentially unchanged in all experiments. These data challenge the concept that the pulmonary vessels respond to these drugs by active vasodilatation


1985 ◽  
Vol 249 (3) ◽  
pp. H570-H576 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Soifer ◽  
R. D. Loitz ◽  
C. Roman ◽  
M. A. Heymann

The factors responsible for maintaining the normally low pulmonary blood flow and high pulmonary vascular resistance in the fetus are not well understood. Since leukotrienes are potent pulmonary vasoconstrictors in many adult animal species, we determined whether leukotrienes were perhaps involved in the control of the fetal pulmonary circulation by studying the effects of putative leukotriene end organ antagonists in two groups of fetal lambs. In six fetal lambs studied at 130-134 days gestation, FPL 55712 increased pulmonary blood flow by 61% (P less than 0.05) and reduced pulmonary vascular resistance by 45% (P less than 0.05). There was a small increase in heart rate but no changes in pulmonary and systemic arterial pressures and systemic arterial blood gases. In six other fetal lambs studied at 130-140 days gestation, FPL 57231 increased pulmonary blood flow by 580% (P less than 0.05) and decreased pulmonary vascular resistance by 87% (P less than 0.05). Pulmonary and systemic arterial pressures decreased (P less than 0.05), and heart rate increased (P less than 0.05). Leukotriene end organ antagonism significantly increases fetal pulmonary blood flow and decreases pulmonary vascular resistance. Leukotrienes may play a role in the physiological control of the fetal pulmonary circulation.


1987 ◽  
Vol 253 (4) ◽  
pp. H941-H948 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Abman ◽  
F. J. Accurso ◽  
R. B. Wilkening ◽  
G. Meschia

To determine the effects of duration of hypoxia on fetal pulmonary blood flow and vasoreactivity, we studied the response of the fetal pulmonary vascular bed before, during, and after prolonged (2-h) and more brief (30-min) exposures to acute hypoxia in 19 chronically instrumented unanesthetized fetal lambs. Left pulmonary arterial blood flow was measured by an electromagnetic flow transducer. Fetal PO2 was lowered by delivering 10-12% O2 to the ewe. During 2-h periods of hypoxia left pulmonary arterial blood flow decreased, and main pulmonary arterial and pulmonary vascular resistance increased. The increase in pulmonary vascular resistance was sustained throughout the 2-h period of hypoxia. After the return of the ewe to room air breathing, pulmonary vascular resistance remained elevated for at least 1 h despite the rapid correction of hypoxemia and in the absence of acidemia. In contrast, after 30 min of hypoxia, left pulmonary arterial blood flow, pulmonary arterial pressure, and pulmonary vascular resistance returned to base-line values rapidly with the termination of hypoxia. The persistent pulmonary hypoperfusion after 2 h of hypoxia was attenuated by alpha-adrenergic blockade and was characterized by a blunted vasodilatory response to increases in fetal PO2. When fetal PO2 was elevated during the posthypoxia period in the presence of alpha-blockade, pulmonary blood flow still remained unresponsive to increases in fetal PO2. We conclude that 2-h periods of acute hypoxia can decrease fetal pulmonary vasoreactivity, and we speculate that related mechanisms may contribute to the failure of the normal adaptation of the pulmonary circulation at birth.


2020 ◽  
pp. 3691-3695
Author(s):  
Nicholas W. Morrell

The normal pulmonary circulation distributes deoxygenated blood at low pressure and high flow to the pulmonary capillaries for the purposes of gas exchange. The structure of pulmonary blood vessels varies with their function—from large elastic conductance arteries, to small muscular arteries, to thin-walled vessels involved in gas exchange. Pulmonary vascular resistance is about one-tenth of systemic vascular resistance, with the small muscular and partially muscular arteries of 50–150 µm diameter being the site of the greatest contribution to resistance. In the normal pulmonary circulation, a large increase in cardiac output causes only a small rise in mean pulmonary arterial pressure because pulmonary vascular resistance falls on exercise. Pulmonary blood flow is heterogeneous: gravity causes increased blood flow in the more dependent parts of the lung; within a horizontal region—or within an acinus—blood-flow heterogeneity is imposed by the branching pattern of the vessels.


1998 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 1079-1085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil O. Ibe ◽  
Sue Hibler ◽  
J. Usha Raj

Eight near-term fetal lambs were studied acutely in utero to determine role of platelet-activating factor (PAF) in the regulation of vasomotor tone in systemic and pulmonary circulations in the immediate perinatal period. Four fetal lambs were studied predelivery and 2 h postdelivery to determine circulating PAF levels. Aortic and pulmonary arterial pressures and cardiac output were measured continuously, and systemic and pulmonary vascular resistances were calculated. Left pulmonary arterial blood flow was also measured in four fetal lambs. After delivery and oxygenation, circulating PAF levels fell significantly. When WEB-2170, a specific PAF-receptor antagonist, was infused to block effect of endogenous PAF in the eight near-term fetal lambs, systemic vascular resistance fell 30% but pulmonary vascular resistance fell dramatically by 68%. Specificity of WEB-2170 was tested in juvenile lambs and was found to be very specific in lowering vasomotor tone only when tone was elevated by action of PAF. Our data show that endogenous PAF levels in the fetus contribute to maintain a high basal systemic and pulmonary vasomotor tone and that a normal fall in circulating PAF levels after birth and oxygenation may facilitate fall in pulmonary vascular resistance at birth.


1995 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 1212-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Cummings

To examine a potential relationship between pulmonary vasodilatation and fetal lung liquid production, I measured lung liquid production in 20 fetal sheep at 130 +/- 4 days gestation while using several agents known to increase pulmonary blood flow. Thirty-two studies were done in which left pulmonary arterial flow (Qlpa) was measured by an ultrasonic Doppler flow probe and net lung luminal liquid production (Jv) was measured by plotting the change in lung luminal liquid concentration of radiolabeled albumin, an impermeant tracer that was mixed into the lung liquid at the start of each study. Qlpa and Jv were measured during a 1- to 2-h baseline period and then during a 1- to 2-h infusion period in which the fetuses received either an intravenous infusion of acetylcholine (n = 8), prostaglandin D2 (n = 10), or the leukotriene blocker FPL-55712 (n = 7). These vasodilators work by different mechanisms, each mechanism having been implicated in the decrease in pulmonary vascular resistance seen at birth. Control (saline) infusions (n = 7) caused no change in either Qlpa or Jv over 4 h. All vasodilator agents significantly increased pulmonary blood flow and decreased Jv. Pulmonary arterial pressure did not change significantly in either the control, acetylcholine, prostaglandin, or leukotriene-blocker studies, indicating that pulmonary vascular resistance decreased. Thus agents that increase pulmonary blood flow by mechanisms that occur at birth also decrease lung liquid production in fetal lambs.


1980 ◽  
Vol 239 (3) ◽  
pp. H297-H301 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. Moore ◽  
J. T. Reeves

Pregnancy decreases systemic vascular reactivity but comparatively little is known about the effects of pregnancy on the pulmonary circulation. Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) during acute hypoxia was lower (P < 0.01) in eight intact anesthetized pregnant dogs compared to the same animals postpartum. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa) and PVR during infusion of prostaglandin (PG) F2 alpha were also reduced during pregnancy. Nonpregnant female dogs (n = 5) treated with estrogen (0.001 mg x kg-1 x da-1) for 2 wk had decreased Ppa (P < 0.01) during acute hypoxia compared to control measurements, but PVR was unchanged during hypoxia and PGF2 alpha infusion. Treatment with progesterone in four dogs had no effect on pulmonary vascular reactivity to hypoxia or PGF2 alpha. Inhibition of circulating PG with meclofenamate in four dogs during pregnancy did not appear to restore pulmonary vascular reactivity. Blunted pulmonary vascular reactivity is suggested by the limited data available for women, but is not seen in pregnant cows. We conclude that pregnancy decreases pulmonary as well as systemic vascular reactivity in the dog, but the mechanism is unclear.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1178-1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Chemla ◽  
Edmund M.T. Lau ◽  
Yves Papelier ◽  
Pierre Attal ◽  
Philippe Hervé

Right ventricular adaptation to the increased pulmonary arterial load is a key determinant of outcomes in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and total arterial compliance (C) quantify resistive and elastic properties of pulmonary arteries that modulate the steady and pulsatile components of pulmonary arterial load, respectively. PVR is commonly calculated as transpulmonary pressure gradient over pulmonary flow and total arterial compliance as stroke volume over pulmonary arterial pulse pressure (SV/PApp). Assuming that there is an inverse, hyperbolic relationship between PVR and C, recent studies have popularised the concept that their product (RC-time of the pulmonary circulation, in seconds) is “constant” in health and diseases. However, emerging evidence suggests that this concept should be challenged, with shortened RC-times documented in post-capillary PH and normotensive subjects. Furthermore, reported RC-times in the literature have consistently demonstrated significant scatter around the mean. In precapillary PH, the true PVR can be overestimated if one uses the standard PVR equation because the zero-flow pressure may be significantly higher than pulmonary arterial wedge pressure. Furthermore, SV/PApp may also overestimate true C. Further studies are needed to clarify some of the inconsistencies of pulmonary RC-time, as this has major implications for our understanding of the arterial load in diseases of the pulmonary circulation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document