Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Naumann, Jonas
• Koppe, Nicklas
• Thome, Ulrich H.
• Laube, Mandy
• Zink, Mareike

Titel

Mechanical properties of the premature lung: From tissue deformation under load to mechanosensitivity of alveolar cells

Ist Teil von

• Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology, 2022-09, Vol.10, p.964318-964318

Ort / Verlag

Frontiers Media S.A

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Many preterm infants require mechanical ventilation as life-saving therapy. However, ventilation-induced overpressure can result in lung diseases. Considering the lung as a viscoelastic material, positive pressure inside the lung results in increased hydrostatic pressure and tissue compression. To elucidate the effect of positive pressure on lung tissue mechanics and cell behavior, we mimic the effect of overpressure by employing an uniaxial load onto fetal and adult rat lungs with different deformation rates. Additionally, tissue expansion during tidal breathing due to a negative intrathoracic pressure was addressed by uniaxial tension. We found a hyperelastic deformation behavior of fetal tissues under compression and tension with a remarkable strain stiffening. In contrast, adult lungs exhibited a similar response only during compression. Young’s moduli were always larger during tension compared to compression, while only during compression a strong deformation-rate dependency was found. In fact, fetal lung tissue under compression showed clear viscoelastic features even for small strains. Thus, we propose that the fetal lung is much more vulnerable during inflation by mechanical ventilation compared to normal inspiration. Electrophysiological experiments with different hydrostatic pressure gradients acting on primary fetal distal lung epithelial cells revealed that the activity of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and the sodium-potassium pump (Na,K-ATPase) dropped during pressures of 30 cmH 2 O. Thus, pressures used during mechanical ventilation might impair alveolar fluid clearance important for normal lung function.