RELEASE OF ENDOTHELIN IN THE OLEIC ACID-INDUCED RESPIRATORY-DISTRESS SYNDROME IN RATS

Rats injected intravenously with oleic acid developed pulmonary edema leading to hypoxia and hypercarbia. These changes were accompanied by an increase in immunoreactive endothelin (ir-ET) in plasma as early as 15 min after injection. At 45 min after injection plasma levels peaked at 114 +/- 19 pg/ml plasma (n = 8) and reached basal levels again after 240 min. In contrast, much larger amounts of ir-ET were found in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, with a peak at 120 min (2878 +/- 258 pg/lung, n = 7) preceding the maximum hypoxia observed at 180 min. In both plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples ir-ET was characterized by reverse-phase HPLC as a mixture consisting mainly of ET-1 and smaller amounts of big ET-1, ET-2 and ET-3. In light of the biological effects of ET, the data suggest that these peptides might be of pathophysiological significance in this model of adult respiratory distress syndrome.