Glutathione supplements protect preterm rabbits from oxidative lung
injury.
Brown, Lou Ann S., Jose A. Perez, Frank L. Harris, and Reese H. Clark.
Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine
APStracts 2:0199L, 1995.
The main objective of this study was to determine if glutathione (GSH)
supplementation attenuated hyperoxic lung injury. Preterm (29 days)
rabbits were delivered and exposed for 24 h to: 1) room air, 2) room
air and GSH, 3) 95% oxygen, or 4) 95% oxygen and GSH. GSH supplements
(1 mM) were delivered in the nutritional support of 10% dextrose and
saline through a peritoneal catheter. Animals assigned to oxygen had
decreased lung volumes at 35 cm H2O, decreased lung compliance,
increased edema, decreased cell viability, and decreased lung tissue
and lavage reduced/oxidized GSH levels compared to control animals.
Despite exposure to hyperoxia, animals supplemented with GSH were not
different from room air controls with respect to lung mechanics,
edema, cell viability or tissue and lavage GSH. These studies suggest
that GSH supplementation maintains normal lavage and lung tissue GSH
levels in preterm animals exposed to hyperoxia and attenuates the
changes in lung mechanics associated with oxygen induced lung injury.
Received 18 August 1994; accepted in final form 9 October 1995.
APS Manuscript Number L243-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Lung Cell. Mol.
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 6 November 95