Intact lung cytochrome P-450 is not required for hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction.

Lung cytochrome P-450 has been suggested to play a role in hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. We reexamined this hypothesis using specific suicide substrate inhibitors of cytochrome P-450, 1-aminobenzotriazole (1-ABT), and chloramphenicol. In isolated, blood-perfused rat lungs, 1-ABT (0.5 mg/ml) and chloramphenicol (1 mg/ml) inhibited lung microsomal cytochrome P-450 (ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase) activity to 24 and 44% of control, respectively, and blunted hypoxia and angiotensin II-induced vasoconstriction. The depression of vascular contraction by 1-ABT was not due to an effect on calcium channels, since similar concentrations of 1-ABT had no inhibitory activity on electrical field-stimulated contractile response in rabbit papillary muscle strips. However, when 1-ABT was washed out of the lung after preincubation, the vascular reactivity to hypoxia and angiotensin II was restored despite persistent depression of lung cytochrome P-450 activity to 26% of control values. In isolated rat aortic and pulmonary arterial rings, addition of 1-ABT or metyrapone to the organ bath acutely reversed norepinephrine-induced contraction but preincubation with 1-ABT, metyrapone, or chloramphenicol had no effect on subsequent norepinephrine contractions. We conclude that 1-ABT inhibited lung vascular reactivity by a mechanism independent of cytochrome P-450 inhibition or calcium channel blockade and that an intact lung cytochrome P-450 system is not required for hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in rat lungs.

Age-dependent variation of zinc-65 metabolism in LACA mice.

Mice were gavaged with zinc-65 solution, 8.6-19.3 kBq per mouse, and the whole-body retention and organ content of zinc-65 were measured at different times after administration. The age-dependence of the fractional absorption of zinc-65 from the gastrointestinal tract (f1), the endogenous faecal excretion fraction of zinc-65 (EFEF), tissue distribution and whole-body retention were determined. The f1 values obtained were 0.86 +/- 0.15, 0.64 +/- 0.11, 0.52 +/- 0.07 and 0.39 +/- 0.02 in suckling, adolescent, young adult and older mice, respectively. The EFEF values determined were 0.083 +/- 0.008, 0.099 +/- 0.004, 0.122 +/- 0.018 and 0.144 +/- 0.005 of intraperitoneally injected zinc-65 in suckling, adolescent, young adult and older mice at administration. Zinc-65 mainly distributed in the liver, muscle, lung, kidneys and bone. In some tissues, there was an inverse relationship between the relative content of gavaged zinc-65 and the animal's age at administration. The whole-body biological half-lives of zinc-65 increased with animal age. The influence of the age-dependent variation of zinc-65 metabolism on internal dose and on radiation protection is discussed.

Pulmonary vascular reactivity in Fischer rats.

We previously reported that Fischer (F) rat lungs developed more extensive injury when challenged with oxidants than age-matched Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat lungs. We now describe a reduced pulmonary vascular response to alveolar hypoxia and angiotensin II (ANG II) in F compared with SD rats. The comparative studies were performed with isolated lungs perfused with salt solution or blood, catheter-implanted awake rats, and isolated main pulmonary arterial rings. Isolated lungs from F rats perfused with either blood or salt solution had reduced vasoconstriction in comparison with lungs from SD rats when exposed to alveolar hypoxia or challenged with ANG II. Instrumented awake F rats had a smaller mean increase in total pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) than SD rats (35 vs. 94 mmHg.min.l-1, P less than 0.05) when challenged with 8% oxygen. The contractile response of isolated pulmonary artery but not thoracic aortic rings to KCl and ANG II was reduced in F compared with SD rats. In addition, F rats exposed to 4 wk of hypobaric hypoxia developed less pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy (when corrected for the hematocrit) than SD rats. We conclude that the oxidant stress-sensitive inbred F rat strain is characterized by a lung vascular bed that is relatively unresponsive to vasoconstricting stimuli. The mechanism underlying this genetic difference in lung vascular control remains to be defined.

Lesioning of the striatum reverses motor asymmetry in the 6-hydroxydopamine rodent model of parkinsonism.

In the rat several paradigms of grafting of adrenal medulla into the striatum were studied following the induction of a parkinsonian model, using a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion of the substantia nigra. Direct autologous grafting of adrenal medulla into the caudate-putamen complex, a radiofrequency lesion of the striatum alone, and a radiofrequency lesion followed by delayed grafting of adrenal medulla were compared by analyzing rotational behavior. Direct grafting of adrenal medulla produced an overall reduction in apomorphine induced turning behavior by 43.5% when compared with controls. Radiofrequency lesioning of the striatum without graft showed the best improvement over control animals with a 92% reduction in the total number of rotations induced by apomorphine. Delayed grafting into the caudate lesion cavity also produced a dramatic reduction in motor asymmetry but did not improve the behavioral outcome over that of the lesion alone. Animals receiving only radiofrequency lesions exhibited a band of increased tyrosine hydroxylase like immunoreactivity bordering the lesion cavity. Graft survival was limited in the non-lesioned animals but appeared enhanced in the animals whose striatum was previously lesioned. Lesion location within the striatum influenced the behavioral outcome. Large reductions in apomorphine-induced rotations could result from small lesions of the dorso-lateral striatum. These findings indicate that selective destruction of the caudate-putamen complex without tissue transplantation produces a dramatic reduction in the motor asymmetry of 6-OHDA treated rats. Suggested explanations for the decrease in induced rotational behavior with radiofrequency lesions include a decrease in the number of striatal dopamine receptors following cell destruction and lesion-induced recovery of host dopaminergic afferents. Striatal damage in critical areas can reverse some of the motor behavior associated with the 6-OHDA model and needs to be considered when evaluating the effects of neural grafting in this model.

Lung injury in Fischer but not Sprague-Dawley rats after short-term hyperoxia.

The Fischer rat is known for its susceptibility to develop liver necrosis when challenged with paraquat (Smith et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 235: 172-177, 1985). We postulated that other organs, specifically the lung, may also be more susceptible to injury and examined whether lungs from Fischer (F) rats were injured more easily when challenged with active oxygen species than Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat lungs. We aimed to investigate whether increased susceptibility to oxidant injury was related to differences in lung antioxidant defenses. Perfused lungs from both rat strains were challenged by addition of H2O2 to the perfusate or by short-term hyperoxic ventilation. To assess nonoxidant modes of lung injury, we examined lung responses after exposure to protamine sulfate or neutrophil elastase. Intravascular H2O2 or 3 h in vitro hyperoxia caused lung edema in F but not SD rats, and elastase injured F rat lungs more than the lungs from SD rats. Protamine, however, injured the lungs from both strains to a similar degree. Catalase, but not superoxide dismutase or allopurinol, protected F rat lungs against edema, resulting from 3 h in vitro hyperoxia. The lung homogenate levels for reduced glutathione or conjugated dienes and the activities of lung tissue catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and cytochrome P-450 were not different between the two strains. Lung tissue ATP levels, however, were lower in F than in SD rats. Although the F rat strain appears to have an altered oxidant-antioxidant defense balance, the exact cause of the greater susceptibility to oxidant stress of the F rat strain remains elusive.