Lung fluid is reabsorbed rapidly at birth to permit alveolar respiration. We reported previously that expression of aquaporins (AQP) 1, 4, and 5 in rat lung increased just after birth. The hypothesis was tested that the increased AQP expression is associated with increased osmotic water permeability (P f ) between the airspace and capillary compartments. P f was measured in isolated perfused fetal and newborn rabbit lungs using a pleural surface fluorescence method (

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