All issues > Volume 31(10); 1988

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1988;31(10):1315-1320. Published online October 31, 1988.

Effect of Unilateral Pneumonectomy on the Compensatory Growing Pattern and the Function of the Type II Pneumocyte of the Contralateral Lung in Adult Rabbits.

Il Youl Ma¹, Jeong Ok Hah¹, Yong Man Lee², Suck Kang Lee²

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yeoungnam University Taegu, Korea
²Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Yeoungnam University Taegu, Korea

Received: February 5, 1988;  Accepted: May 2, 1988.

Abstract

In order to confirm the effect of unilateral pneumonectomy on the compensatory growing pattern and the function of the type II pneumocyte in the contralateral lung, pneumonectomy was performed on the right lung of the New Zealand White rabbits. Five days after the surgery, pneumonectomized (PN) and control(CN) rabbits* lung were resected. As a result f the measurement of the left lung weight and body weight, L/B(lung weight/body weight) was calculated in PN and CN rabbits. By calaculating of the L/B, the compensatory growing of the PN rabbit left lung was confirmed. Determination of DNA-P and RNA-P content in the PN rabbit left lung revealed that DNA-P content did not changed while RNA-P content increased significantly (p<0.01) in comparison with DNA-P and RNA-P content of CN rabbit left lung. Therefore significant increase of RNA-P/DNA-P in PN rabbit left lung signified that the hypertrophy was a main cellular event during the compensatory lung growing. The fact that phospholipid-P content was increased in the pulmonary lavage fluid of the PN rabbit left lung suggested that as a result of the unilateral pneumonectomy, the hypertrophy of the type II pneumocytes occured by a certain humoral factor and which caused increased secretion of pulmonary surfactant.

Keywords :Pneumonectomy, Compensatory Growth