Cross-tolerance to hyperoxia following cadmium aerosol pretreatment

Preexposure of male Lewis rats to Cd aerosols (1.6 mg Cd/m3, 3 hr/day, 5 days/week, for 4 weeks) has been found to produce a marked degree of tolerance to hyperoxia (greater than 96% O2). Cd-pretreated animals were still alive after 8 days of continuous exposure to oxygen. In contrast, hyperoxia was fatal to all air-preexposed animals within 54-62 hr. Lungs of Cd-pretreated animals were characterized by hyperplasia and/or hypertrophy of the type II alveolar cell compartment which may have enabled them to more rapidly repair oxidant damage resulting from hyperoxia. Cd pretreatment augmented enzymatic antioxidant enzyme activities, including total lung Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase, catalase, glutathione reductase, and Mn-superoxide dismutase, and caused elevations in pulmonary nonprotein thiols and metallothionein (MT). MT, a thiol-rich, low-molecular-weight protein, was 400-fold higher in Cd-pretreated animals and bound more than 80% of the total Cd in the lung. We have hypothesized that MT serves as an expendable yet renewable cellular target for free radical damage during oxygen exposure. A systemic acute-phase response, characterized by alterations in plasma Zn and Cu concentrations and increased ceruloplasmin oxidase activity, was initiated in Cd-pretreated animals by the fourth day of hyperoxia. This response was accompanied by improvement in pulmonary status and extensive pulmonary repair.