Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.,
Volume 165, Number 4, February 2002, 475-480
Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) Attenuates Exogenous
Surfactant in Lung-injured Adult Rabbits
HOLLY
CAMPBELL,
KAREN
BOSMA,
ANGELA
BRACKENBURY,
LYNDA
MCCAIG,
LI-JUAN
YAO,
RUUD
VELDHUIZEN,
and
JAMES
LEWIS
Department of Medicine and Physiology, Lawson Health Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Exogenous surfactant administration in patients with the acute re-spiratory distress syndrome is currently being evaluated, although
resource limitations and the potential expense are existing concerns.
Previous in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that substances such
as polyethylene glycol (PEG) added to exogenous surfactant improved the function of the surfactant. Based on these data, we hypothesized that PEG would augment surfactant function in an adult
rabbit model of lung injury induced by lung lavage and mechanical
ventilation, and that this would be accomplished by altering surfactant metabolism. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, mean PaO2,
PaCO2, and peak inspiratory pressures values 3 h after treatment
were significantly worse in the surfactant + PEG treatment groups
compared with the surfactant alone groups. These effects were observed for two different doses of surfactant tested. Lavage analyses
after sacrifice showed that animals given PEG with their surfactant
had significantly lower total and large aggregate surfactant pool
sizes compared with animals given surfactant alone. We conclude
that in this lung injury model, PEG attenuated surfactant responses,
suggesting that further preclinical studies are required before testing this approach in humans.
