Influence of a prostaglandin endoperoxide analogue on the canine pulmonary vascular bed

We evaluated the effects of an analogue of the prostaglandin endoperoxide, PGH2, in the canine pulmonary vascular bed. The analogue increased pulmonary arterial pressure whereas cardiac output and left atrial pressure were unchanged. Although pulmonary vascular resistance was increased markedly, only small increases in systemic vascular resistance were observed. In experiments in which blood flow to a lobe was maintained constant, the analogue produced dose-related increases in lobar arterial and small vein pressure but little change in left atrial pressure. These data suggest that the analogue increased resistance to flow by constricting intrapulmonary veins and upstream vessels presumed to be small arteries. The increase in resistance was similar when the lung was perfused with dextran or with blood. In addition, the analogue increased inflation pressure; however, similar increments in vascular resistance were obtained in ventilated and nonventilated lung lobes. Indomethacin, in doses which abolished responses to arachidonic acid, did not attenuate the response to the analogue. These results suggest that interaction with formed elements, increases in airway tone, or stimulation of prostaglandin synthesis contribute little if anything to the pressor response to the analogue. These data show that the analogue is far more potent than the bisenoic prostaglandins in the pulmonary vascular bed and suggest that endoperoxides may represent an active form of the prostaglandins in the lung.