Theoretical gas phase mass transfer coefficients for endogenous gases in the lungs

Microstructural Analysis of Peripheral Lung Tissue through CPMG Inter-Echo Time R2 Dispersion

Since changes in lung microstructure are important indicators for (early stage) lung pathology, there is a need for quantifiable information of diagnostically challenging cases in a clinical setting, e.g. to evaluate early emphysematous changes in peripheral lung tissue. Considering alveoli as spherical air-spaces surrounded by a thin film of lung tissue allows deriving an expression for Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill transverse relaxation rates R₂ with a dependence on inter-echo time, local air-tissue volume fraction, diffusion coefficient and alveolar diameter, within a weak field approximation. The model relaxation rate exhibits the same hyperbolic tangent dependency as seen in the Luz-Meiboom model and limiting cases agree with Brooks et al. and Jensen et al. In addition, the model is tested against experimental data for passively deflated rat lungs: the resulting mean alveolar radius of R_A = 31.46 ± 13.15 μm is very close to the literature value (∼34 μm). Also, modeled radii obtained from relaxometer measurements of ageing hydrogel foam (that mimics peripheral lung tissue) are in good agreement with those obtained from μCT images of the same foam (mean relative error: 0.06 ± 0.01). The model’s ability to determine the alveolar radius and/or air volume fraction will be useful in quantifying peripheral lung microstructure.

Airway gas exchange and exhaled biomarkers

During inspiration and expiration, gases traverse the conducting airways as they are transported between the environment and the alveolar region of the lungs. The term "conducting" airways is used broadly as the airway tree is thought largely to provide a conduit for the respiratory gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide. However, despite a significantly smaller surface area, and thicker barrier separating the gas phase from the blood when compared to the alveolar region, the airway tree can participate in gas exchange under special conditions such as high water solubility, high chemical reactivity, or production of the gas within the airway wall tissue. While these conditions do not apply to the respiratory gases, other gases demonstrate substantial exchange of the airways and are of particular importance to the inflammatory response of the lungs, the medical-legal field, occupational health, metabolic disorders, or protection of the delicate alveolar membrane. Given the significant structural differences between the airways and the alveolar region, the physical determinants that control airway gas exchange are unique and require different models (both experimental and mathematical) to explore. Our improved physiological understanding of airway gas exchange combined with improved analytical methods to detect trace compounds in the exhaled breath provides future opportunities to develop new exhaled biomarkers that are characteristic of pulmonary and systemic conditions.

Biologically-based modeling insights in inhaled vapor absorption and dosimetry

The lung is a route of entry and also a target site for inhaled vapors, therefore, knowledge of the total absorbed dose and/or the dose absorbed in each airway during inhalation exposure is essential. Vapor absorption characteristics result primarily from the fact that vapors demonstrate equilibrium/saturation behavior in fluids. Thus, during inhalation exposures blood and airway tissue vapor concentrations increase to a steady state value and increase no further no matter how long the exposure. High tissue concentrations can be obtained with highly soluble vapors, thus solubility, as measured by blood:air partition coefficient, is a fundamentally important physical/chemical characteristic of vapors. While it is classically thought that vapor absorption occurs only in the alveoli it is now understood that this is not the case. Soluble vapors can be efficiently absorbed in the airways themselves and do not necessarily penetrate to the alveolar level. Such vapors are more likely to injure the proximal than distal airways because that is the site of the greatest delivered dose. There are substantial species differences in airway vapor absorption between laboratory animals and humans making interpretation of laboratory animal inhalation toxicity data difficult. Airway absorption is dependent on vapor solubility and is enhanced by local metabolism and/or direct reaction within airway tissues. Modern simulation models that incorporate terms for solubility, metabolism, and reaction rate accurately predict vapor absorption patterns in both animals and humans and have become essential tools for understanding the pharmacology and toxicology of airborne vapors.

A validated hybrid computational fluid dynamics-physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for respiratory tract vapor absorption in the human and rat and its application to inhalation dosimetry of diacetyl

Diacetyl vapor is associated with bronchiolar injury in man but primarily large airway injury in the rat. The goal of this study was to develop a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for inspired vapor dosimetry and to apply the model to diacetyl. The respiratory tract was modeled as a series of airways: nose, trachea, main bronchi, large bronchi, small bronchi, bronchioles, and alveoli with tissue dimensions obtained from the literature. Airborne vapor was allowed to absorb (or desorb) from tissues based on mass transfer coefficients. Transfer of vapor within tissues was based on molecular diffusivity with direct reaction with tissue substrates and/or metabolism being allowed in each tissue compartment. In vitro studies were performed to provide measures of diacetyl metabolism kinetics and direct reaction rates allowing for the development of a model with no unassigned variables. Respiratory tract uptake of halothane, acetone, ethanol and diacetyl was measured in male F344 rat to obtain data for model validation. The human model was validated against published values for inspired vapor uptake. For both the human and rat models, a close concordance of model estimates with experimental measurements was observed, validating the model. The model estimates that limited amounts of inspired diacetyl penetrate to the bronchioles of the rat (<2%), whereas in the lightly exercising human, 24% penetration to the bronchioles is estimated. Bronchiolar tissue concentrations of diacetyl in the human are estimated to exceed those in the rat by 40-fold. These inhalation dosimetric differences may contribute to the human-rat differences in diacetyl-induced airway injury.

Inhalation dosimetry of diacetyl and butyric acid, two components of butter flavoring vapors

Occupational exposure to butter flavoring vapors (BFV) is associated with significant pulmonary injury. The goal of the current study was to characterize inhalation dosimetric patterns of diacetyl and butyric acid, two components of BFV, and to develop a hybrid computational fluid dynamic-physiologically based pharmacokinetic model (CFD-PBPK) to describe these patterns. Uptake of diacetyl and butyric acid vapors, alone and in combination, was measured in the upper respiratory tract of anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats under constant velocity flow conditions and the uptake data were used to validate the CFD-PBPK model. Diacetyl vapor (100 or 300 ppm) was scrubbed from the airstream with 76-36% efficiency at flows of 100-400 ml/min. Butryic acid (30 ppm) was scrubbed with >90% efficiency. Concurrent exposure to butyric acid resulted in a small but significant reduction of diacetyl uptake (36 vs. 31%, p < 0.05). Diacetyl was metabolized in nasal tissues in vitro, likely by diacetyl reductase, an enzyme known to be inhibited by butyric acid. The CFD-PBPK model closely described diacetyl uptake; the reduction in diacetyl uptake by butyric acid could be explained by inhibition of diacetyl reductase. Extrapolation to the human via the model suggested that inspired diacetyl may penetrate to the intrapulmonary airways to a greater degree in the human than in the rat. Thus, based on dosimetric relationships, extrapulmonary airway injury in the rat may be predictive of intrapulmonary airway injury in humans. Butyric acid may modulate diacetyl toxicity by inhibiting its metabolism and/or altering its inhalation dosimetric patterns.

Measuring airway exchange of endogenous acetone using a single-exhalation breathing maneuver

Exhaled acetone is measured to estimate exposure or monitor diabetes and congestive heart failure. Interpreting this measurement depends critically on where acetone exchanges in the lung. Health professionals assume exhaled acetone originates from alveolar gas exchange, but experimental data and theoretical predictions suggest that acetone comes predominantly from airway gas exchange. We measured endogenous acetone in the exhaled breath to evaluate acetone exchange in the lung. The acetone concentration in the exhalate of healthy human subjects was measured dynamically with a quadrupole mass spectrometer and was plotted against exhaled volume. Each subject performed a series of breathing maneuvers in which the steady exhaled flow rate was the only variable. Acetone phase III had a positive slope (0.054 ± 0.016 liter−1) that was statistically independent of flow rate. Exhaled acetone concentration was normalized by acetone concentration in the alveolar air, as estimated by isothermal rebreathing. Acetone concentration in the rebreathed breath ranged from 0.8 to 2.0 parts per million. Normalized end-exhaled acetone concentration was dependent on flow and was 0.79 ± 0.04 and 0.85 ± 0.04 for the slow and fast exhalation rates, respectively. A mathematical model of airway and alveolar gas exchange was used to evaluate acetone transport in the lung. By doubling the connective tissue (epithelium + mucosal tissue) thickness, this model predicted accurately ( R2 = 0.94 ± 0.05) the experimentally measured expirograms and demonstrated that most acetone exchange occurred in the airways of the lung. Therefore, assays using exhaled acetone measurements need to be reevaluated because they may underestimate blood levels.

Free nitric oxide diffusion in the bronchial microcirculation

Theoretical mass transfer rates and concentration distributions were determined for transient diffusion of free nitric oxide (NO) generated in vivo from vascular endothelial cells. Our analytical framework is typical of the bronchial circulation in the human pulmonary system but is applicable to the microvascular circulation in general. We characterized mass transfer rates in terms of the fractional mass flux across a boundary relative to the total endothelial NO production rate. NO concentration in the tissue surrounding blood vessels was expressed in terms of fractional soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activity. Our results suggest that endothelium-derived free NO is capable of vascular smooth muscle dilation despite its rapid consumption by hemoglobin in blood. An optimal blood vessel radius of 20 microm was estimated for NO signaling. We hypothesize intermittent generation of endothelial NO as a possible mechanism for sGC activation in vascular smooth muscle. This mechanism enhances the efficacy of NO-modulated vascular smooth muscle dilation while minimizing NO losses to blood and surrounding tissue.

Respiratory fluid mechanics and transport processes

The field of respiratory flow and transport has experienced significant research activity over the past several years. Important contributions to the knowledge base come from pulmonary and critical care medicine, surgery, physiology, environmental health sciences, biophysics, and engineering. Several disciplines within engineering have strong and historical ties to respiration including mechanical, chemical, civil/environmental, aerospace and, of course, biomedical engineering. This review draws from a wide variety of scientific literature that reflects the diverse constituency and audience that respiratory science has developed. The subject areas covered include nasal flow and transport, airway gas flow, alternative modes of ventilation, nonrespiratory gas transport, aerosol transport, airway stability, mucus transport, pulmonary acoustics, surfactant dynamics and delivery, and pleural liquid flow. Within each area are a number of subtopics whose exploration can provide the opportunity of both depth and breadth for the interested reader.

Longitudinal distribution of ozone and chlorine in the human respiratory tract: simulation of nasal and oral breathing with the single-path diffusion model

In the single-path model of the respiratory system, gas transport occurs within a conduit of progressively increasing cross-sectional and surface areas by a combination of flow, longitudinal dispersion, and lateral absorption. The purpose of this study was to use bolus inhalation data previously obtained for chlorine (Cl(2)) and for ozone (O(3)) to test the predictive capability of the single-path model and to adjust input parameters for applying the model to other exposure conditions. The data, consisting of uptake fraction as a function of bolus penetration volume, were recorded on 10 healthy nonsmokers breathing orally as well as nasally at alternative air flows of 150, 250, and 1000 ml/s. By employing published data for airway anatomy, gas-phase dispersion coefficients, and gas-phase mass transfer coefficients while neglecting diffusion limitations in the mucus phase, the single-path model was capable of predicting the uptake distribution for O(3) but not the steeper distribution that was observed for Cl(2). To simultaneously explain the data for these two gases, it was necessary to increase gas-phase mass transfer coefficients and to include a finite diffusion resistance of O(3) within the mucous layer. The O(3) reaction rate constants that accounted for this diffusion resistance, 2 x 10(6) s(-1) in the mouth and 8 x 10(6) s(-1) in the nose and lower airways, were much greater than previously reported reactivities of individual substrates found in mucus.

Microscopic modeling of NO and S-nitrosoglutathione kinetics and transport in human airways

Nitric oxide (NO) appears in the exhaled breath and is elevated in inflammatory diseases. We developed a steady-state mathematical model of the bronchial mucosa for normal small and large airways to understand NO and S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) kinetics and transport using data from the existing literature. Our model predicts that mean steady-state NO and GSNO concentrations for large airways (generation 1) are 2.68 nM and 113 pM, respectively, in the epithelial cells and 0.11 nM (approximately 66 ppb) and 507 nM in the mucus. For small airways (generation 15), the mean concentrations of NO and GSNO, respectively, are 0.26 nM and 21 pM in the epithelial cells and 0.02 nM (approximately 12 ppb) and 132 nM in the mucus. The concentrations in the mucus compare favorably to experimentally measured values. We conclude that 1) the majority of free NO in the mucus, and thus exhaled NO, is due to diffusion of free NO from the epithelial cell and 2) the heterogeneous airway contribution to exhaled NO is due to heterogeneous airway geometries, such as epithelium and mucus thickness.