Age and sex differences in lung elasticity, and in closing capacity in nonsmokers

Static volume-pressure characteristics of the human lung, closing capacity (CC), closing pressure, and subdivisions of lung volumes were measured in 66 adult nonsmokers, aged 24-58 yr. There were systemic differences between the sexes as well as with age. Young females had less elastic recoil at any lung volume than young males. However, males lost elastic recoil with age faster than females so that in the older age groups the recoil was similar. There were no significant changes in compliance over the volume range containing most values of CC in either males or females. By comparing the age regression of CC and of elastic recoil pressures at 40 and 50% TLC we conclude that the increase in CC with age in males was attributable almost entirely to loss of recoil. In females none of the increase in closing capacity with age was attributable to loss of recoil. By exclusion, it is probably attributable to a change in the intrinsic properties of small airways or an increase in the pleural pressure gradient with age.