External113Inm and99Tcm radiation detection of lung edema induced by oleic acid in the guinea pig

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Abstract
The establishment of a small animal model for studies of lung injury is in great demand. Therefore, a double radioisotope labeling method was applied to study the dynamics of lung injury with protein-rich edema in the anesthetized guinea pig. One external scintillation detector was placed over the lung and another over the heart, where they continuously sampled the energy spectrum of113Inm labeled transferrin, a macromolecular marker, and99Tcm labeled red blood cells (RBC), a blood pool marker. Lung injury was induced by i.v. oleic acid in doses of 0.03 and 0.06 ml/kg b.wt. infused for 10 min. We calculated the rate of increase of accumulated113Inm-transferrin in the lung corrected for blood pool changes. Macromolecular leakage showed a graded response in regression line-slope (RLS) to oleic acid. Both oleic acid groups showed significantly different RLSs as compared to the saline control (mean ± SD × 10−3 min−1; 0.03 ml: 3.86 ± 1.01 (n = 7); 0.06 ml: 10.75 ± 4.06 (n = 6), and control 1.12 ± 1.19 (n = 6)). Assays of changes of acid-base balance, cell dynamics, and lung wet-dry weight were in accordance with the occurrence of lung edema. The RLS was well correlated with the lung wet-dry weight (r = 0.98). We conclude that measurements of pulmonary edema in guinea pigs can be performed quantitatively with the aid of external detection of radiolabeled transferrin and RBC:s. Thus, the method could be useful in further studies on mechanisms and/or treatment of protein-rich lung edema.