Pulmonary vascular reactivity is blunted in pregnant rats

Pulmonary arterial pressure is decreased in pregnant women despite increased cardiac output, suggesting that pulmonary vascular resistance is decreased in pregnancy. To determine if pulmonary vascular reactivity is decreased in pregnant rats, lungs isolated from pregnant rats were perfused with blood from other pregnant rats at constant flow rate, and pressor responses to airway hypoxia and to angiotensin II were measured. Compared with responses obtained in lungs from nonpregnant female rats, hypoxic and angiotensin II pressor responses were blunted in pregnancy. To separate possible effects of pregnancy on the lung from those of substance(s) circulating in the blood in pregnancy, we perfused lungs from nonpregnant rats with blood from pregnant rats. Both the hypoxic and angiotensin II pressor responses were blunted by blood from pregnant rats. The angiotensin II pressor response was blunted also in lungs from pregnant rats perfused with blood from nonpregnant rats. These results suggest that a circulating substance is responsible for blunting of pulmonary vascular reactivity in pregnancy and that changes in the lung induced by pregnancy also depress angiotensin II responses. It is unlikely that estrogen and progesterone were responsible for these effects, since lungs and blood obtained from animals treated with these hormones did not have blunted pulmonary vascular reactivity.