Abstract
This study was designed to examine the influence of prolonged caloric deprivation on the mechanical and ultrastructural characteristics of rat lungs. We measured the static deflation pressure-volume relationships in air- and saline-filled lungs and we used morphometric techniques to analyze the cytoplasmic components of pulmonary granular pneumocytes. Adult rats were allowed one fifth of their usual daily food consumption and water ad libitum for 3 weeks. Body weights and wet and dry weights of lung were significantly decreased in starved rats with no significant differences in lung dry-to-wet weight ratios compared to the control animals. In starved rats, pressure-volume curves of air-filled lungs, expressed as a percentage of maximal lung volume were significantly shifted downward and to the right, indicating a significant increase in surface forces, whereas saline pressure-volume curves, as a percentage of maximal lung volume, were shifted upward and to the left, indicating a significant decrease in ti...
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