NA Christie, DE Smith, KN Decampos, AS Slutsky, GA Patterson and AK Tanswell
Medical Research Council Group in Lung Development, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Donor lungs for transplantation are susceptible to "preservation" injury during both storage and postimplantation reperfusion. We investigated whether lung dysfunction seen after storage and reperfusion was associated with any biochemical hallmarks of direct cellular oxidant injury to lipid, protein, or DNA. Heart/lung blocks were extracted from adult rats following pulmonary vascular flush. Lungs were either perfused immediately ex vivo for 2 h with deoxygenated venous rat blood or were stored at 10 degrees C for 13 h before perfusion. Stored lungs had increased airway pressure, pulmonary vascular shunt fraction, wet/dry weight ratio, and parenchymal hemorrhage after perfusion but no change in pulmonary artery pressure compared with immediately perfused lungs. Hypothermic storage caused no biochemical changes in lung tissue. Perfusion of fresh or stored lungs resulted in lipid peroxidation and loss of nonprotein reduced sulfhydryls; sulfhydryl loss was threefold higher in lungs stored before perfusion compared with freshly perfused lungs. Reperfusion of stored, not fresh, lungs was associated with DNA damage. No loss of protein sulfhydryls occurred following lung perfusion. We conclude that DNA damage, loss of reduced nonprotein sulfhydryls, and lipid peroxidation during reperfusion of stored lungs may be responsible for physiologic lung dysfunction.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. A. Cardella, S. Keshavjee, E. Mourgeon, S. D. Cassivi, S. Fischer, N. Isowa, A. Slutsky, and M. Liu A novel cell culture model for studying ischemia-reperfusion injury in lung transplantation J Appl Physiol, October 1, 2000; 89(4): 1553 - 1560. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				O. D. SCHNEUWLY, M. LICKER, C. M. PASTOR, A. SCHWEIZER, D. O. SLOSMAN, Y. KAPANCI, L. P. NICOD, J. ROBERT, A. SPILIOPOULOS, and D. R. MOREL Beneficial Effects of Leukocyte-depleted Blood and Low-potassium Dextran Solutions on Microvascular Permeability in Preserved Porcine Lung Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., August 1, 1999; 160(2): 689 - 697. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				G. Trittenwein, A. T Rotta, B. Gunnarsson, and D. M Steinhorn Lipid peroxidation during initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation after hypoxia in endotoxemic rabbits Perfusion, January 1, 1999; 14(1): 49 - 57. [Abstract] [PDF]

				F. SAKAMAKI, H. HOFFMANN, C. MULLER, H. DIENEMANN, K. MESSMER, and F. W. SCHILDBERG Reduced Lipid Peroxidation and Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury after Lung Transplantation Using Low-Potassium Dextran Solution for Lung Preservation Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., October 1, 1997; 156(4): 1073 - 1081. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. N. ATOCHINA, V. R. MUZYKANTOV, A. B. AL-MEHDI, S. M. DANILOV, and A. B. FISHER Normoxic Lung Ischemia/Reperfusion Accelerates Shedding of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme from the Pulmonary Endothelium Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., October 1, 1997; 156(4): 1114 - 1119. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. E. ERASMUS, G. J. H. HOFSTEDE, A. H. PETERSEN, H. P. HAAGSMAN, S. B. OETOMO, and J. PROP Effects of Early Surfactant Treatment Persisting for One Week after Lung Transplantation in Rats Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., July 1, 1997; 156(2): 567 - 572. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				M. Tagaya, K.-F. Liu, B. Copeland, D. Seiffert, R. Engler, J. H. Garcia, and G. J. del Zoppo DNA Scission After Focal Brain Ischemia : Temporal Differences in Two Species Stroke, June 1, 1997; 28(6): 1245 - 1254. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				R. J. Novick, K. E. Gehman, I. S. Ali, and J. Lee Lung Preservation: The Importance of Endothelial and Alveolar Type II Cell Integrity Ann. Thorac. Surg., July 1, 1996; 62(1): 302 - 314. [Abstract] [Full Text]