Radiation damage to the surfactant system of the rabbit lung

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that irradiation damages the pulmonary surfactant system a series of experiments was made on rabbits. Limited fields of one lung were irradiated with 2500 to 10000 rads in a single shot. The irradiated part of the lung was compared with the contra lateral non-irradiated lung with the aid of Pattle's and Clements' method for estimation of the surfactant activity. Our findings in normal lungs agree with those previously reported and our results from irradiated lungs show that radiation injury includes damage to the pulmonary surfactant system. This raises the possibility that the clinical picture of radiation injury to some extent is caused by alteration of the surfactant system.