Vitamin E inhibition of the effects of hyperoxia on the pulmonary surfactant system of the newborn rabbit.

The effects of vitamin E on the neonatal surfactant system were studied in rabbits exposed to air or hyperoxia (greater than 95%) from birth through 48 h of life. Hyperoxia exposure resulted in lung lavage phospholipid content which reached only 74% of air-exposed controls, and static pressure:volume observations of decreased maximum distensibility and altered compliance. Treatment with vitamin E (100 mg/kg of dl-alpha-tocopherol S.Q.) at 1 and 24 h of life was shown to completely abolish these effects of hyperoxia. Morphometrically determined alterations in epithelial cell composition and erythrocyte-contaminated air spaces resulting from hyperoxia exposure were also absent in pups treated with vitamin E. These findings suggest that early vitamin E treatment in vitamin E-deprived newborns prevents hyperoxia-associated compromise to the pulmonary surfactant system and selected other aspects of oxygen-induced lung injury in the neonate.