Pulmonary arterioles from rats with congenital diaphragmatic hernias are hypoplastic but not hyperresponsive.

BACKGROUND: Infants born with congenital diaphragmatic hernias (CDH) frequently die as a result of pulmonary hypertension and persistent fetal circulation. The pulmonary vessels of infants with CDH have decreased total cross-sectional area, increased muscle content, and muscularization of intra-acinar arterioles that are normally not muscularized. These structural alterations are believed to result in exaggerated responses to normal vasoconstrictor stimuli.

METHODS: The authors used the nitrofen-induced CDH model in rats to determine whether the vasoconstrictor responses of pulmonary arterioles are exaggerated in this animal model of CDH. The authors compared the responses of isolated third-generation pulmonary arterioles from normal rats and from rats with nitrofen-induced CDH to K+-induced depolarization, phenylephrine, angiotensin II, serotonin, and the thromboxane A2 agonist, U46619.

RESULTS: It was found that the intraluminal diameter of third-generation pulmonary arterioles from CDH rats was significantly less than in controls (129 +/- 5 micron v 152 +/- 9 micron, respectively). In addition, the ratio of wall thickness to vessel internal diameter was increased in the third-generation pulmonary arterioles of rats with nitrofen-induced CDH (0.62 +/- 0.4 v 0.50 +/- 0.5 for controls). Responses to K+-induced depolarization, phenylephrine, angiotensin II, serotonin, and U46619, however, were not different for pulmonary arterioles from control and CDH rats.

CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the structural alterations of the pulmonary vasculature observed in infants with CDH may not cause exaggerated vasoconstrictor responses to normal vasoconstrictor stimuli.