Unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis inhibits postnatal lung growth in the piglet.

To test the hypothesis that regional growth of lung parenchyma depends on regional distending pressure, left cervical phrenectomy was done in ten 2-month-old piglets. The unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis reduced mean transpulmonary pressure in the left hemithorax from 5.5 +/- 1.0 (means +/- SD) to 2.5 +/- 1.2 cm H2O (p less than 0.01, n = 5). When five of the piglets were killed 48 h later, wet lung weight, total protein content, and nucleic acid content did not differ from values in the five sham operated controls. The five remaining phrenectomized piglets were compared to their five sham-operated controls 7 days after surgery. Wet weight of the left lung was reduced by 29% (p less than 0.01) and DNA content was reduced by 18% (p less than 0.05). Wet weight of the right lung, contralateral to the paralyzed hemidiaphragm, was reduced by 11% (p less than 0.05). At this time, body weight, bilateral transpulmonary pressure, and ratios of total protein/DNA and RNA/DNA in lung tissue did not differ from the sham-operated controls. These results suggest that regional growth of lung parenchyma by cell proliferation adjusted to changes in regional transpulmonary pressure caused by the unilateral phrenectomy.