Airway structure variability in the Long-Evans rat lung

Acute cardiovascular effects of inhaled ambient particulate matter: Chemical composition-related oxidative stress, endothelin-1, blood pressure, and ST-segment changes in Wistar rats

Short-term increases in particulate matter (PM) are associated with heightened morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular causes. Inhalation of PM is known to increase endothelin (ET)-1 levels. Yet, less is known about particle composition-related changes at the molecular level including the endothelinergic system and relationship with cardiovascular function changes. In this work, adult Wistar male rats were exposed for 4 h by nose-only inhalation to clean air, Ottawa urban particles (EHC-93, 48 mg/m³) and water-leached (EHC-93L, 49 mg/m³) particles, to examine the effect of particle compositional changes on oxidative stress, circulating ETs, blood pressure, and heart electrophysiology. Particle deposition in the respiratory compartment was estimated at 85 μg (25 ng/cm²). Lung cell proliferation was low in both treatment groups, indicating absence of acute injury. Inhalation of EHC-93 caused statistically significant elevations (p < 0.05) of oxidative stress markers, ET-1, ET-3, blood pressure, and a decrease of ST-segment duration in the ECG at 1.5 days post-exposure. Leached particles (EHC-93L) caused rapid but transient elevation (p < 0.05) of oxidative stress, ET-1, ET-2, and ET-3 at earlier time points, with no changes in blood pressure or ST-segment. These results demonstrate that inhalation of urban particles at an internal dose inadequate to cause acute lung injury can induce oxidative stress, enhance vasoactive endothelins, leading to vasopressor response, affecting cardiac electrophysiology in Wistar rats, consistent with the cardiovascular impacts of ambient particles in human populations. Change in particle potency after removal of soluble species, notably cadmium, zinc and polar organics suggests that the toxicodynamics of cardiovascular effects can be modified by physicochemical properties of particles.

Rat airway morphometry measured from in situ MRI-based geometric models

Rodents have been widely used to study the environmental or therapeutic impact of inhaled particles. Knowledge of airway morphometry is essential in assessing geometric influence on aerosol deposition and in developing accurate lung models of aerosol transport. Previous morphometric studies of the rat lung performed ex situ provided high-resolution measurements (50-125 μm). However, it is unclear how the overall geometry of these casts might have differed from the natural in situ appearance. In this study, four male Wistar rat (268 ± 14 g) lungs were filled sequentially with perfluorocarbon and phosphate-buffered saline before being imaged in situ in a 7-T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner at a resolution of 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.27 mm. Airway length, diameter, gravitational, bifurcation, and rotational angles were measured for the first four airway generations from 3D geometric models built from the MR images. Minor interanimal variability [expressed by the relative standard deviation RSD (=SD/mean)] was found for length (0.18 ± 0.07), diameter (0.15 ± 0.15), and gravitational angle (0.12 ± 0.06). One rat model was extended to 16 airway generations. Organization of the airways using a diameter-defined Strahler ordering method resulted in lower interorder variability than conventional generation-based grouping for both diameter (RSD = 0.12 vs. 0.42) and length (0.16 vs. 0.67). Gravitational and rotational angles averaged 82.9 ± 37.9° and 53.6 ± 24.1°, respectively. Finally, the major daughter branch bifurcated at a smaller angle (19.3 ± 14.6°) than the minor branch (60.5 ± 19.4°). These data represent the most comprehensive set of rodent in situ measurements to date and can be used readily in computational studies of lung function and aerosol exposure.

An anatomical and functional model of the human tracheobronchial tree

The human tracheobronchial tree is a complex branched distribution system in charge of renewing the air inside the acini, which are the gas exchange units. We present here a systematic geometrical model of this system described as a self-similar assembly of rigid pipes. It includes the specific geometry of the upper bronchial tree and a self-similar intermediary tree with a systematic branching asymmetry. It ends by the terminal bronchioles whose generations range from 8 to 22. Unlike classical models, it does not rely on a simple scaling law. With a limited number of parameters, this model reproduces the morphometric data from various sources (Horsfield K, Dart G, Olson DE, Filley GF, Cumming G. J Appl Physiol 31: 207-217, 1971; Weibel ER. Morphometry of the Human Lung. New York: Academic Press, 1963) and the main characteristics of the ventilation. Studying various types of random variations of the airway sizes, we show that strong correlations are needed to reproduce the measured distributions. Moreover, the ventilation performances are observed to be robust against anatomical variability. The same methodology applied to the rat also permits building a geometrical model that reproduces the anatomical and ventilation characteristics of this animal. This simple model can be directly used as a common description of the entire tree in analytical or numerical studies such as the computation of air flow distribution or aerosol transport.

An automated self-similarity analysis of the pulmonary tree of the Sprague-Dawley rat

We present the results of an automated analysis of the morphometry of the pulmonary airway trees of the Sprague-Dawley rat. Our work is motivated by a need to inform lower-dimensional mathematical models to prescribe realistic boundary conditions for multiscale hybrid models of rat lung mechanics. Silicone casts were made from three age-matched, male Sprague-Dawley rats, immersed in a gel containing a contrast agent and subsequently imaged with magnetic resonance (MR). From a segmentation of this data, we extracted a connected graph, representing the airway centerline. Segment statistics (lengths and diameters) were derived from this graph. To validate this MR imaging/digital analysis method, airway segment measurements were compared with nearly 1,000 measurements collected by hand using an optical microscope from one of the rat lung casts. To evaluate the reproducibility of the MR imaging/digital analysis method, two lung casts were each imaged three times with randomized orientations in the MR bore. Diameters and lengths of randomly selected airways were compared among each of the repeated imaging datasets to estimate the variability. Finally, we analyzed the morphometry of the airway tree by assembling individual airway segments into structures that span multiple generations, which we call branches. We show that branches not segments are the fundamental repeating unit in the rat lung and develop simple mathematical relationships describing these structures for the entire lung. Our analysis shows that airway diameters and lengths have both a deterministic and stochastic character.