Heat stress attenuates air bubble-induced acute lung injury: a novel mechanism of diving acclimatization

Abstract

Diving acclimatization refers to a reduced susceptibility to acute decompression sickness (DCS) in individuals undergoing repeated compression-decompression cycles. We postulated that mechanisms responsible for the acclimatization are similar to that of a stress preconditioning. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of prior heat shock treatment on air embolism-induced lung injury and on the incidence of DCS in rats. We exposed rats ( n = 31) to a pressure cycle that induced signs of severe DCS in 48% of the rats, greater wet-to-dry ratio (W/D) of lung weight compared with the control group (5.48 ± 0.69 vs. 4.70 ± 0.17), and higher protein concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid (362 ± 184 vs. 209 ± 78 mg/l) compared with the control group. Rats with DCS expressed more heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the lungs than those without signs of disease. Prior heat shock ( n = 12) increased the expression of HSP70 in the lung and attenuated the elevation of W/D of lung weight (5.03 ± 0.17) after the identical decompression protocol. Prior heat shock reduced the incidence of severe DCS by 23%, but this failed to reach statistical significant (χ2 = 1.94, P = 0.163). Venous air infusion (1.0 ml/40 min) caused profound hypoxemia (54.5 ± 3.8 vs. 83.8 ± 3.2 Torr at baseline; n = 6), greater W/D of lung weight (5.98 ± 0.45), and high protein concentration in BAL fluid (595 ± 129 mg/l). Prior heat shock ( n = 6) did not alter the level of hypoxemia caused by air embolism, but it accelerated the recovery to normoxemia after air infusion was stopped. Prior heat shock also attenuated the elevation of W/D of lung weight (5.19 ± 0.40) and the increase in BAL protein (371 ± 69 mg/l) in air embolism group. Our results showed that the occurrence of DCS after rapid decompression is associated with increased expression of a stress protein (HSP70) and that prior heat shock exposure attenuates the air bubble-induced lung injury. These results suggest that bubble formation in tissues activates a stress response and that stress preconditioning attenuates lung injury on subsequent stress, which may be the mechanism responsible for diving acclimatization.