Regional differences in pleural lymphatic albumin concentration in sheep

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · Am. J. Physiol.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6937231

Albertine, K H; Schultz, E L; Wiener-Kronish, J P; Staub, N C

We used quantitative reflectance autoradiography to compare the concentration of albumin in visceral pleural lymphatics at the cranial and caudal ends of the sheep's lung in the vertical (60 degrees head-up) and horizontal (supine) positions. Twelve to fourteen hours after injecting 125I-albumin intravenously we placed four anesthetized sheep in the vertical position to establish a microvascular hydrostatic pressure gradient along the vertical height of the lung. We placed two anesthetized sheep in the horizontal position. Four hours later, we fixed the left lung and removed visceral pleural tissue blocks from the cranial and caudal ends, separated by a 15-cm distance, along the costovertebral margin. We measured the silver grain density in the pleural lymphatic autoradiograms by dark-field reflectance microspectrophotometry. In the vertical position, the lymph albumin concentration at the cranial end (top) of the lung averaged 2.5 +/- 0.4 g/dl compared with the caudal end (bottom), which averaged 1.8 +/- 0.3 g/dl. The difference (42% greater at the top than the bottom) is significant (P less than 0.05). The computed gradient in perimicrovascular interstitial albumin osmotic pressure was 0.26 +/- 0.13 cmH2O/cm lung height. There were no differences between the cranial and caudal lymphatic groups in the two horizontal sheep. We conclude that in the sheep lung there is a gradient in perimicrovascular albumin concentration due to the vertical gradient in microvascular hydrostatic pressure.

• Research Organization: Univ. of California, San Francisco
• OSTI ID: 6937231
• Journal Information: Am. J. Physiol.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. J. Physiol.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALBUMINS
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
LUNGS
LYMPH NODES
IODINE 125
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
LYMPHATIC SYSTEM
SHEEP
ANIMALS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BODY
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
ELECTRON CAPTURE RADIOISOTOPES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
IODINE ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
MAMMALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
PROTEINS
RADIOISOTOPES
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
RUMINANTS
VERTEBRATES
551001* - Physiological Systems- Tracer Techniques