Osmotic extraction of hypotonic fluid from the lungs.

After injections of sucrose, NaCl, and urea solutions, the flow of tissue fluid from the lungs amounted to 0.182, 0.216, and 0.152 x 10(-3) ml/s per mosmol/kg of concentration difference between plasma and tissues in each gram of wet tissue weight. The extracted fluid contained less than 20% of the Na(+), K(+) and urea concentrations of the plasma. It was concluded that this fluid was distinctly hypotonic in comparision with the fluids of the plasma and tissue compartments both before and after the injection of hypertonic solutions. The presence of low solute concentrations in the extracted fluid is attributed to the passage of this fluid across cellular membranes, which are relatively impermeable to small hydrophilic solutes. Movement of fluid out of the junctions appears to be less than that through the endothelial cells. It is suggested that the injected solutes rapidly leak into the junctions and consequently induce relatively little movement of water or tissue solutes out of the junctions. Concentrations of tritiated water and [(14)C]antipyrine in the extracted fluid are essentially the same as base-line plasma concentrations when the animals have been primed with these tracers. It is therefore likely that these tracers can readily traverse cellular membranes. Red cell transit through the lungs is impaired by hypertonic solutions of sucrose and NaCl with transient increases in pulmonary arterial hemoglobin concentrations of as much as 35% of base-line values.