Effect of histamine and alloxan on canine pulmonary vascular permeability

We estimated the pulmonary capillary membrane filtration coefficient (Kf) and the maximum capillary pressure (PCcritical) at which the lung could maintain a constant weight in 1) 5 control experiments in anesthetized open-chested dogs, 2) 7 experiments in which the dogs were given 3.6-8.3 microgram . kg-1 . min-1 of histamine phosphate, and 3) in 6 experiments after 75-100 mg/kg of alloxan. In additional experiments, pulmonary lymph flow (QL) and protein concentration (CL) were measured during the infusion of histamine and alloxan. After histamine, Kf averaged 0.045 +/- 0,008 ml . min-1mmHg-1 (SE) and PCcritical was 22.1 +/- 1.1 mmHg. These values were not significantly different from the control Kf and PCcritical (0.036 +/- 0.006 and 22.5 +/- 2.3, respectively). After alloxan, Kf (1.43 +/- 0.69) was larger and PCcritical (12.4 +/- 1.3) was significantly less than control (P less than 0.05). Histamine caused no significant change in QL or CL; however, both were increased after alloxan. These results show that Kf, PCcritical, QL, and CL are all changed by an increase in capillary membrane permeability caused by alloxan. Because none of these factors as significantly affected by histamine, dog lung capillary membrane permeability may not be affected by histamine.