Flow and pressure signals were then passed through 8-pole Bessel low-pass filters (902LPF, Frequency Devices, Haverhill, MA, USA) with the corner frequency set at 100 Hz, sampled at 200 Hz with a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (DT2801A, Data Translation, Marlboro, MA, USA), and stored on a microcomputer. All data were collected using LABDAT Ivacaftor mouse software (RHT-InfoData Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada). Lung resistive (ΔP1) and viscoelastic/inhomogeneous (ΔP2) pressures, static elastance (Est), and viscoelastic component

of elastance (ΔE) were computed by the end-inflation occlusion method ( Bates et al., 1985 and Bates et al., 1988). Briefly, after end-inspiratory occlusion, there is an initial fast drop in transpulmonary

pressure (ΔP1) from the pre-occlusion value down to an Baf-A1 manufacturer inflection point (Pi) followed by a slow pressure decay (ΔP2), until a plateau is reached. This plateau corresponds to the elastic recoil pressure of the lung (Pel). ΔP1 selectively reflects airway resistance in normal animals and humans and ΔP2 reflects stress relaxation, or viscoelastic properties of the lung, together with a small contribution of time constant of alveoli ( Bates et al., 1988 and Saldiva et al., 1992). Lung static and dynamic elastances (Est and Edyn, respectively) were calculated by dividing Pel and Pi by tidal volume, respectively. ΔE was calculated as Est − Edyn, and reflects the viscoelastic component of elastance ( Bates et al., 1985 and Bates et al., 1988). Heparin (1000 IU) was intravenously injected immediately after the determination of pulmonary mechanics. The trachea was clamped at end-expiration and the animals were euthanized by exsanguinations via sectioning of the abdominal aorta and the vena cava. The lungs were removed and weighed. Functional residual capacity (FRC) was determined by volume displacement (Scherle, 1970). Left lungs were then fixed with Millonig formaldehyde (100 ml HCHO, 900 ml H2O, 18.6 g

selleck compound NaH2PO4, 4.2 g NaOH), routinely prepared for histology, embedded in paraffin, and two 3-μm-thick longitudinal slides from the left lung were cut and stained with hematoxylin–eosin. Morphometric analysis was performed with an integrating eyepiece with a coherent system made of a 100-point and 50-line (1250-μm-long each) grid coupled to a conventional light microscope (Axioplan, Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany). The fraction areas of collapsed and normal alveoli were determined by the point-counting technique at a magnification of ×200 across 10 random non-coincident microscopic fields per animal. Points falling on normal or collapsed alveoli were expressed as percentage of points hitting those alveoli (Weibel, 1990). Polymorphonuclear (PMN) and pulmonary tissue were evaluated at ×1000 magnification across 10 random non-coincident microscopic fields in each animal.