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P C Russell

Publications and source records attributed to P C Russell.

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Interactions between hypoxic and almitrine-induced vasoconstriction in the rat lung.

1. To test whether almitrine might improve the arterial partial pressure of O2 in patients with chronic obstructive airways disease by improvement of ventilation-perfusion matching, we looked at the interaction between hypoxic and almitrine-induced vasoconstriction in isolated rat lungs perfused with blood at constant flow. Increases in pressure represented increases in resistance. 2. Almitrine, given in increasing doses between challenges with 2% O2, enhanced hypoxic vasoconstriction at low doses but attenuated it at high doses. 3. Stimulus-response curves to hypoxia of increasing severity gave a sigmoid curve. 4. Almitrine solvent caused small changes in pulmonary artery pressure and shifted the stimulus-response curve slightly in a parallel fashion. 5. Small doses of almitrine enhanced the action of mild to moderate hypoxia, medium doses attenuated moderately severe hypoxia, whereas high doses depressed vasoconstriction due to all degrees of hypoxia. 6. These effects of almitrine on hypoxic vasoconstriction were compared with the effect of solvent by analysis of variance; the results substantiated significant enhancement of hypoxia by small doses and attenuation by large doses. 7. In patients, if similar effects apply, small doses of almitrine would assist ventilation-perfusion matching, but large doses might worsen it. 8. Almitrine-induced vasoconstriction was attenuated by a fall in perfusate temperature in a similar manner to hypoxic vasoconstriction. It was also attenuated by three drugs, chlorpheniramine, propanolol and diethylcarbamazine, all of which also decrease hypoxic vasoconstriction. The similarity between hypoxic and almitrine-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction is further confirmed.

Almitrine

Enhanced reactivity to bradykinin, angiotensin I and the effect of captopril in the pulmonary vasculature of chronically hypoxic rats.

We compared the reactivity of pulmonary vessels to bradykinin (BK) and angiotensin I (AI) in normal and chronically hypoxic rats; the latter have pulmonary hypertension and muscularized pulmonary arterioles. These peptides are respectively inactivated and activated by the angiotensin converting-enzyme (ACE) on pulmonary endothelium. Isolated lungs were perfused at a constant flow rate when changes in pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa) reflect changes in vascular resistance. Dose-response curves to BK (1 ng-10 micrograms) were derived during normoxia and pre-constriction by hypoxia; BK both decreased and increased vascular resistance, i.e. vasodilation and vasoconstriction. In normal rats only constriction was seen in normoxia, which reflected low basal vascular tone, whereas in chronically hypoxic rats there was only dilatation which reflected high basal vascular tone. In hypoxia in normal rats, low doses caused dilatation, high doses constriction; in chronically hypoxic rats there was again only dilatation which was larger than in controls. After the ACE-inhibitor captopril, constriction was exaggerated in control rats in both normoxia and hypoxia and took place in chronically hypoxic rats after high doses in both normoxia and hypoxia; oedema often followed. Dose-response curves to AI (1 ng-micrograms) in normoxia showed greatly enhanced pressor responses in chronically hypoxic compared with normal rats, probably attributable to increased sensitivity to angiotensin II (AII) rather than enhanced conversion of AI to AII. Captopril caused a proportionate reduction in responses in both groups of rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Angiotensin I

Reactivity and site of vasomotion in pulmonary vessels of chronically hypoxic rats: relation to structural changes.

The high pressure muscular pulmonary circulation of chronically hypoxic (CH) rats was compared with the low pressure circuit in control (C) rats; differences were found in the effects of lung inflation, in pressure/flow relations during lung inflation, in reactivity to autocoids, and in responses to pulmonary dilator drugs. Isolated blood-perfused lungs of CH rats (2 to 3 wk in 10% O2) were compared with those of C rats kept in air. High inflation (alveolar) pressure (Palv) caused a rise in pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa) close to delta Palv in both groups; in CH rats, Ppa continued to rise, whereas it adapted to a lower level in C rats. Pressure-flow (P/Q) lines were measured at high and low Palv, all in Zone 2 state. In normoxia, high Palv caused a parallel shift in the P/Q line close to delta Palv in both C and CH rats. However, during hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV), high Palv caused a shift in the P/Q line less than delta Palv in C rats and greater than delta Palv in CH rats. Similar differences between C and CH rats were seen during constriction caused by almitrine, a drug that simulates HPV. Thus, these stimuli affect vessels that are functionally "extra-alveolar" in C rats but functionally "alveolar" in CH rats. We consider whether vasoconstriction by hypoxia and almitrine moves peripherally to the newly muscularized alveolar arterioles that are found in CH rats. Reactivity of lung vessels to bradykinin, angiotensin-1, and platelet-activating factor was greater in CH than in C rats, possibly also associated with muscularization of arterioles in the former.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adenosine