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Updated: Jul 23, 2026
Angiogenesis in the Ischemic Rat Lung
Published on: February 8, 2013
Vascular injury after whole thoracic x-ray irradiation in the rat
1Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
Purpose:
To study vascular injury after whole thoracic irradiation with single sublethal doses of X-rays in the rat and to develop markers that might predict the severity of injury.
Methods And Materials:
Rats that received 5- or 10-Gy thorax-only irradiation and age-matched controls were studied at 3 days, 2 weeks, and 1, 2, 5, and 12 months. Several pulmonary vascular parameters were evaluated, including hemodynamics, vessel density, total lung angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, and right ventricular hypertrophy.
Results:
By 1 month, the rats in the 10-Gy group had pulmonary vascular dropout, right ventricular hypertrophy, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, increased dry lung weights, and decreases in total lung angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, as well as pulmonary artery distensibility. In contrast, irradiation with 5 Gy resulted in only a modest increase in right ventricular weight and a reduction in lung angiotensin-converting enzyme activity.
Conclusion:
In a previous investigation using the same model, we observed that recovery from radiation-induced attenuation of pulmonary vascular reactivity occurred. In the present study, we report that deterioration results in several vascular parameters for
