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Lungs harvested from cadaveric circulation-arrested donors may increase the donor pool for lung transplantation. To determine the degree and time course of ischemia-reperfusion injury, we evaluated the effect of O2 ventilation on capillary permeability [capillary filtration coefficient (Kfc)], cell viability, and total adenine nucleotide (TAN) levels in in situ circulation-arrested rat lungs. Kfc increased with increasing postmortem ischemic time (r = 0.88). Lungs ventilated with O2 1 h postmortem had similar Kfc and wet-to-dry ratios as controls. Nonventilated lungs had threefold (P < 0.05) and sevenfold (P < 0.0001) increases in Kfc at 30 and 60 min postmortem compared with controls. Cell viability decreased in all groups except for 30-min postmortem O2-ventilated lungs. TAN levels decreased with increasing ischemic time, particularly in nonventilated lungs. Loss of adenine nucleotides correlated with increasing Kfc values (r = 0.76). This study indicates that lungs retrieved 1 h postmortem may have normal Kfc with preharvest O2 ventilation. The relationship between Kfc and TAN suggests that vascular permeability may be related to lung TAN levels.

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The aim of parenteral nutrition in tumour patients is to offer an alternative nutritional support to the patient without accelerating the growth of the tumour. For this purpose we fed a total of 100 rats, divided into five groups of 20 animals each (10 with and 10 without tumours), for a total period of 15 days with various nutritional regimes. Group 1 received glucose, group 2 long-chain triglycerides, group 3 medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), group 4 ω-3 fatty acids, and group 5 an oral diet. On the 10th day the Yoshida sarcoma in its ascites form was implanted into the tumour-bearing rats. In animals receiving MCT or ω-3 fatty acids tumour growth was considerably smaller than in the other groups (group 1 vs. groups 3 and 4; p < 0.05). Unfavourable effects of the administration of these fatty acids on the general condition of the animals were not observed [muscle nitrogen content (mg/kg body weight): MCT = 82.3, ω-3 fatty acids = 65.25]. The impulse cytophotometric measurements did not demonstrate any influence on the pattern of cell division (p > 0.05). We think that modulation of the immune system by feeding with MCT or ω-3 fatty acids was responsible for the reduced tumour growth in relation to the other groups. The extrapolation of these results to the clinical situation, however, may not be possible.