Causes of experimental pulmonary hypertension in rats

Experimental pulmonary hypertension was induced in young male rats by means of tracheoconstriction and repeated injections of aqueous bean (Phaseolus vulg.) extract into the trachea. After 120 days, the blood pressure of the experimental and control animals was measured in the pulmonary artery with a shaped polyethylene catheter, without opening the chest. In all the experimental animals the blood pressure in the pulmonary artery was higher than in the controls. The mean pressure in the pulmonary artery of the experimental rats was 25 +/- 1 torr and in the controls 16 +/- 0.4 torr. The right ventricle of the experimental animals was larger than in the controls. No difference was found between the systemic blood pressure values, measured in the femoral artery, in the experimental animals and the controls. The experimental animals had a faster heart rate. Cardiac output, measured by the dye dilution method, was the same in the control and experimental animals and there was likewise no difference in the PO2 PCO2 and pH values in the arterial blood. The inhalation of oxygen instead of air did not affect the blood pressure in the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary blood vessels were evaluated quantitatively in histological sections of the experimental and control animal's lungs. There was no different between the thickness of the media of the distal pulmonary vessels, expressed as a percentage of the outer diameter of the vessel, in the experimental animals and the controls. A media thicker than 7% was found in 15% of the evaluated vessels from experimental animals and in 8% of those from the controls. No correlation between the mean thickness of the media and the mean blood pressure in the pulmonary artery was found in any of the animals.