The effects of desiccated thyroid on the rat lung

✍ Scribed by Callas, G. ;Adkisson, V. T.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 654 KB
• Volume: 197
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/ar.1091970307

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Pressure‐volume characteristics of whole lungs were measured in euthyroid rats and in rats fed 0.4% desiccated thyroid for eight weeks. The lungs were degassed by incising the diaphragm after the animals had breathed 100% oxygen for ten minutes. The pressure‐volume characteristics were measured by inflating and deflating the lungs at a rate of 3.5 cc/min. Total lung capacity (TLC) was considered to be that volume of air required to produce a transpulmonary pressure of 30 cm H~2~O. At TLC there was 35% greater lung volume in the thyroid‐treated animals than in their littermate controls. Similar results were observed in saline‐filled lungs. Alveolar surface area (S~a~) increased from 0.28m^2^ in the lungs of control animals to 0.75m^2^ in lungs of thyroid‐treated animals. There was an 85% increase in the alveolar surface density (S~va~) in the thyroid‐treated animals. These results, obtained by morphometric analysis, suggest that greater lung volume in the thyroid‐treated animals resulted from alveolar hyperplasia or „partitioning”︁.