Role of albumin in prevention of edema in perfused rabbit lungs.

Edema formation was studied using in situ rabbit lungs perfused with normal 5.0 g/dl) and low (0.1 g/dl) albumin solutions. Measurements were made of the ratio of wet weight to dry weight of the lungs corrected for the residual vascular volume, [(W/D)ev] and the ratio of extravascular 22Na+ to extravascular water volume. Edema formation in the 5 g/dl lungs was insignificant during a 60-min perfusion interval. A moderate amount of edema was found in 0.1 g/dl lungs: (W/D)ev = 5.30 +/- 0.12 (SE) compared with 4.66 +/- 0.11 in the 5 g/dl lungs. Much greater rates of edema formation were found in the 0.1 g/dl lungs when left atrial pressures were increased from 0 to 10 Torr; (W/D)ev reached 7.89 +/- 0.50 in 60 min compared with 5.66 +/- 0.23 in the 5 g/dl lungs. No additional edema formation occurred when albumin concentrations were decreased from 0.1 g/dl to below 0.01 g/dl. Albumin concentration gradients across the capillary wall appear to increase with elevations in capillary pressure.