Respiration physiology
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Respiration physiology · Oct 2001
ReviewGenetic and environmental modulation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout a large part of the western world. Although personal tobacco use has been implicated in a large number of these cases, it is also true that only a fraction of smokers ever develop respiratory problems. Therefore, the question of host susceptibility and other environmental factors should be considered. This paper will briefly review evidence for host susceptibility to COPD, review evidence for additional environmental risk factors for the development of COPD, and give an example of environmental interactions with a known genetic risk factor that further increase the risk of COPD.
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Acute lung inflammation is an important component of a number of pulmonary diseases, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Much has been learned about the manner in which various insults to lung, such as infection or trauma, bring about recruitment of neutrophils into alveoli and small airways, resulting in parenchymal damage and organ dysfunction. In this brief review, we discuss the endogenous mechanisms in which the lung regulates the acute inflammatory response in rats to intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes. Emphasis is given to the participation of the transcription factor, NF-kappaB, in the development of lung injury and the endogenous mediators which attempt to control the extent of lung inflammation by modulating the activation of NF-kappaB.
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Respiration physiology · Feb 1992
ReviewHemodynamics of vascular 'waterfall': is the analogy justified?
The concept of 'vascular waterfall' has been used for collapsible vessels in different hemodynamic states which have little similarity to each other from a dynamic standpoint. Examples include (a) flow through large systemic veins entering the thorax, (b) flow through microvessels, such as pulmonary, cardiac, hepatic, cerebral, and (c) flow through the jugular vein of the giraffe. ⋯ Hence, the term waterfall as a metaphor is misleading and unjustified. We suggest that the use of the term be discontinued for describing vascular dynamics.
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Respiration physiology · Jan 1980
ReviewBlood/gas equilibrium of carbon dioxide in lungs. A critical review.
(1) The scope of this review is to examine the experimental evidence for the existence of negative PCO2 differences between pulmonary capillary blood and lung gas, [delta PCO2(b-G)], which have been observed both during rebreathing, when CO2 was at equilibrium, and during steady state gas exchange, particularly in hypercapnia. (2) The mechanism that have been invoked to explain negative delta PCO2(b-G) include (i) slow equilibration of the system CO2/HCO3-/H+ in blood, and (ii) effects of a negatvely charged surface of the pulmonary capillary endothelium. While the first postulated mechanism appears to be quantitatively insufficient to explain the results, the second seems to lead to serious qualitative difficulties. (3) Existence of negative delta PCO2(b-G) in CO2 equilibrium would invalidate the basis of the conventional analysis of alveolar gas exchange. (4) A critical analysis of the experimental evidence for the existence of negative delta PCO2(b-G) is presented. It includes the identification of directional experimental errors leading to spurious negative delta PCO2(b-G), and a critical review of the literature data in this regard. (5) Results of own experiments, conducted in an attempt to consider all possible sources of error, are reported, revealing (i) perfect PCO2 equality between alveolar gas and blood in rebreathing equilibrium of CO2; (ii) absence of negative delta PCO2 (b-G) during steady state gas exchange in hypercapnia. (6)Both experiments and model calculations show that negative delta PCO2 between mixed venous blood and end-expired gas observed in birds at steady state of gas exchange are explained by a particular action of the Haldane effect in avian parabronchial lungs with cross-current arrangement of gas and blood flow. (7) It is concluded that the negative delta PCO2(b-G) reported in the literature are probably artifactual and that there is no adequate evidence to invalidate the traditional view according to which blood/gas CO2 equilibration in lungs leads to equal PCO2 in both media.