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Updated: Jul 23, 2026
Respirometric Oxidative Phosphorylation Assessment in Saponin-permeabilized Cardiac Fibers
Published on: February 28, 2011
Effects of storage and reperfusion oxygen content on substrate metabolism in the isolated rat lung
P E Meyer1, M E Jessen, J B Patel
1Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 75235, USA. dan.meyer@email.swmed.edu
Background:
Lung transplantation requires a period of storage and ischemia; we examined the largely unknown effects of that period on intermediary metabolism.
Methods:
Two groups of isolated rat lung blocks (n = 16 each) were flushed with Euro-Collins solution and harvested. The lung blocks were immediately ventilated and either perfused for 30 minutes with an erythrocyte-based solution containing carbon 13 labeled substrates (group 1) or stored for 6 hours at 1 degree C and then reperfused (group 2). Half of each group was reperfused at a physiologic Po2 the other half at high Po2. Analysis of carbon 13 isotopomers was performed to determine substrate utilization through aerobic pathways in lung tissue.
Results:
Lungs from both groups oxidized all major substrates. The contribution of fatty acids to acetylcoenzyme acid oxidized in the citric acid cycle was significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1 (31.3% +/- 2.2% versus 22.0% +/- 2.1%, p < 0.05). Perfusate Po2 did not affect substrate preference. Gas exchange was worse in stored lungs.
Conclusions:
After a period of hypothermic ischemia and storage, substrate preference in lung tissue exhibits a switch towards fatty acids. As fatty acid oxidation occurring after ischemia is deleterious in other organs, strategies to inhibit this process in stored lungs may warrant further investigation.
