Chest
Volume 119, Issue 6, June 2001, Pages 1893-1900
Journal home page for Chest

Laboratory and Animal Investigations
Pentoxifylline Rescue Preserves Lung Function in Isolated Canine Lungs Injured With Phorbol Myristate Acetate

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.119.6.1893Get rights and content

Objective

We hypothesized that pentoxifylline, administered after phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), would diminish the severity of lung injury.

Setting

Animal research laboratory.

Design

Comparative study.

Subjects

Mongrel dogs (n = 33).

Interventions

Baseline measurements were obtained from the isolated blood-perfused dog lung lobes after 1 h of stable perfusion and ventilation. Four different measures of lung compliance were obtained along with WBC and neutrophil counts. Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and capillary filtration coefficient (Kf) were calculated, and the ratio of a normalized maximal enzymatic conversion rate to the Michaelis-Menten constant (Amax/Km) was used to assess perfused capillary surface area. The control lobes (n = 8) were ventilated and perfused for an additional 40 min while the injured lobes (n = 17) received PMA (0.1 μg/mL of perfusate). The pentoxifylline-protected lobes (n = 8) were treated with pentoxifylline (1 mg/mL of perfusate) 10 min after injury with PMA. All measurements were then repeated.

Measurement and main results

The three groups did not differ significantly at baseline. The control lobes remained relatively stable over time. The injured lobes demonstrated marked deterioration in compliance: 8.79 ± 0.7 to 5.97 ± 0.59 mL/cm H2O (p < 0.05) vs 10.1 ± 1.0 to 8.07 ± 0.72 mL/cm H2O and 9.6 ± 1.1 to 9.9 ± 0.85 mL/cm H2O in the control and protected lobes, respectively. Both groups receiving PMA had similar drops in WBC and neutrophil counts, but the pentoxifylline-protected lobes had preservation of all four compliance measures. PVR increased from 37.8 ± 1.8 to 118.6 ± 12.7 cm H2O/L/min (p < 0.05) in the injured lobes vs 35.4 ± 0.5 to 36.3 ± 2.8 cm H2O/L/min and 40.4 ± 0.04 to 46.7 ± 2.8 cm H2O/L/min (p < 0.05) in the control and protected lobes, respectively. Kf increased < 25% in the protected group but more than tripled in the injured group. Amax/Km dropped from 559 ± 36 to 441 ± 33 mL/min (p < 0.05) in the injured lobes vs 507 ± 14 to 490 ± 17 mL/min and 609 ± 34 to 616 ± 37 mL/min in the control and pentoxifylline-protected lobes, respectively.

Conclusions

The use of pentoxifylline as a rescue agent prevented the PMA-induced deterioration of lung compliance, vascular integrity, and endothelial metabolic function in this acute lung injury model, despite significant pulmonary neutrophil sequestration.

Section snippets

Isolated Lung Lobe Preparation

We used mongrel dogs weighing 20.7 ± 0.33 kg (mean ±SD). Investigators complied with national standards regarding care and use of laboratory animals. The facilities were fully accredited by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, International. They were anesthetized with 30 mg/kg of IV pentobarbital sodium (Abbott Laboratories; North Chicago IL). They were then intubated and received mechanical ventilation (rate, 10 to 15 breaths/min; tidal volume [Vt],

Results

The groups were not different from each other in baseline dog weight (20.7 ± 0.33 kg), lobe weight (39.9 ± 1.23 g), Vt used (55.5 ± 0.72 mL), or PEEP (4.4 ± 0.11 cm H2O) settings. Initial measures of compliance were also similar, with opening pressure (10.9 ± 0.36 cm H2O), closing pressure (2.8 ± 0.29 cm H2O), static compliance (19.1 ± 0.51 mL/cm H2O), and spot compliance (9.2 ± 0.52 mL/cm H2O) not significantly differing between groups. Vascular integrity measured by PVR and Kf were also

Discussion

Using the isolated blood-perfused lung preparation allowed us to eliminate many confounding systemic influences. We were able to study endothelial metabolic function in its natural milieu as well as follow WBC trapping since the neutrophils were either in circulation or sequestered in the lung. The simplicity of the system also allowed for easy measure of Kf and lobar weight change. With the addition of compliance measures and estimates of ACE activity, we were able to follow the PMA-induced

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to acknowledge the technical expertise and assistance given by Hiram Ocasio and James Parkerson. We would also like to thank Dr. Cynthia H. Shields who provided invaluable proofreading services.

References (33)

  • RJ McDonald

    Pentoxifylline reduces injury to isolated lungs perfused with human neutrophils

    Am Rev Respir Dis

    (1991)
  • GL Mandell

    Cytokines, phagocytes, and pentoxifylline

    J Cardiovasc Pharm

    (1995)
  • JD Catravas et al.

    Pulmonary endothelial dysfunction in the presence or absence of interstitial injury induced by intratracheally injected bleomycin in rabbits

    Am Rev Respir Dis

    (1983)
  • AS Slutsky

    Lung injury caused by mechanical ventilation

    Chest

    (1999)
  • JG Muscedere et al.

    Tidal ventilation at low airway pressures can augment lung injury

    Am J Respir Crit Care Med

    (1994)
  • L Tremblay et al.

    Injurious ventilatory strategies increase cytokines and c-fos m-RNA expression in an isolated rat lung model

    J Clin Invest

    (1997)
  • Cited by (12)

    • Pentoxifylline

      2008, xPharm: The Comprehensive Pharmacology Reference
    • N-acetylcysteine attenuates the acute lung injury caused by phorbol myristate acetate in isolated rat lungs

      2007, Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics
      Citation Excerpt :

      The reduction of methyl guanidine by NAC may account at least in part, the protective role of NAC on the PMA-ALI. Several studies reported the effectiveness of antioxidants such as dimethythiourea [30], pentoxifylline [10], lipophilic oxidant scavengers U7389G and U74500A [9,13] on the PMA-induced ALI. These results further support the involvement of free radical in the PMA-induced changes and the importance of free radical reduction in the preventive strategy for ALI induced by phorbol.

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This work was performed at the Vascular Biology Center of the MedicalCollege of Georgia, Augusta, GA, and was supported in part by a grantfrom the Southeastern Affiliate of the American Heart Association.

    The views expressed in this article are those of the authorsand do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US Government.

    View full text