High-Dose Inhaled Nitric Oxide and Hyperoxia Increases Lung Collagen Accumulation in Piglets

Nitric oxide (NO), a pro-oxidant gas, is used with hyperoxia (O 2 ) to treat neonatal pulmonary hypertension and recently bronchopulmonary dysplasia, but great concerns remain regarding NO’s potential toxicity. Based on reports that exposure to oxidant gases results in pulmonary extracellular matrix injury associated with elevated lavage fluid levels of extracellular matrix components, we hypothesized that inhaled NO with or without hyperoxia will have the same effect. We measured alveolar septal width, lung collagen content, lavage fluid hydroxyproline, hyaluronan and laminin levels in neonatal piglets after 5 days’ exposure to room air (RA), RA + 50 ppm NO (RA + NO), O 2 (FiO 2 > 0.96) or O 2 + NO. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity and MMP-2 mRNA were also measured. In recovery experiments, we measured lung collagen content in piglets exposed to RA + NO or O 2 + NO and then allowed to recover for 3 days. The results show that lung collagen increased 4-fold in the RA + NO piglets, the O 2 and O 2 + NO groups had only a 2-fold elevation relative to RA controls. Unlike the RA + NO piglets, the O 2 and O 2 + NO groups had more than 20-fold elevation in lung lavage fluid hydroxyproline compared to the RA group. O 2 and O 2 + NO also had increased lung MMP activity, extravascular water, and lavage fluid proteins. MMP-2 mRNA levels were unchanged. After 3 days’ recovery in room air, the RA + NO groups’ lung collagen had declined from 4-fold to 2-fold above the RA group values. The O 2 + NO group did not decline. Alveolar septal width increased significantly only in the O 2 and O 2 + NO groups. We conclude that 5 days’ exposure to NO does not result in pulmonary matrix degradation but instead significantly increases lung collagen content. This effect appears potentially reversible. In contrast, hyperoxia exposure with or without NO results in pulmonary matrix degradation and increased lung collagen content. The observation that NO increased lung collagen content represents a new finding and suggests NO could potentially induce pulmonary fibrosis.