Effects of food deprivation on experimental emphysema in obese rats

Obese male rats, with an average body weight of 530 g (approximately 30 weeks old), received either pancreatic elastase (75 microns/100 g) or saline intratracheally and were divided into fed and starved groups. Starved rats were given one-third of their measured daily food consumption. All groups were studied 4 weeks after the initiation of starvation. In both elastase and saline exposed rats, the saline volume-pressure curves expressed as a percentage of maximal lung volume were similar in fed and starved groups. Mean linear intercept (Lm) and alveolar surface area (Sa) were not different between the control-fed and the control-starved rats. Lm was similar but Sa was significantly smaller in the elastase-starved compared with the elastase-fed groups. It is concluded that, in contrast to the aggravating affects of weight loss on experimental emphysema in adult nonobese rats, food restriction does not affect elastase-induced injury significantly in obese animals.