When does the lung die?K fc, cell viability, and adenine nucleotide changes in the circulation-arrested rat lung

Abstract

Jones, David R., Randy M. Becker, Steve C. Hoffmann, John J. Lemasters, and Thomas M. Egan. When does the lung die? K fc, cell viability, and adenine nucleotide changes in the circulation-arrested rat lung. J. Appl. Physiol. 83(1): 247–252, 1997.—Lungs harvested from cadaveric circulation-arrested donors may increase the donor pool for lung transplantation. To determine the degree and time course of ischemia-reperfusion injury, we evaluated the effect of O2 ventilation on capillary permeability [capillary filtration coefficient ( K fc)], cell viability, and total adenine nucleotide (TAN) levels in in situ circulation-arrested rat lungs. K fc increased with increasing postmortem ischemic time ( r = 0.88). Lungs ventilated with O2 1 h postmortem had similar K fc and wet-to-dry ratios as controls. Nonventilated lungs had threefold ( P < 0.05) and sevenfold ( P < 0.0001) increases in K fc at 30 and 60 min postmortem compared with controls. Cell viability decreased in all groups except for 30-min postmortem O2-ventilated lungs. TAN levels decreased with increasing ischemic time, particularly in nonventilated lungs. Loss of adenine nucleotides correlated with increasing K fc values ( r = 0.76). This study indicates that lungs retrieved 1 h postmortem may have normal K fc with preharvest O2 ventilation. The relationship between K fc and TAN suggests that vascular permeability may be related to lung TAN levels.