Accurate method to study static volume-pressure relationships in small fetal and neonatal animals.

We designed an accurate method to study respiratory static volume-pressure relationships in small fetal and neonatal animals on the basis of Archimedes' principle. Our method eliminates the error caused by the compressibility of air (Boyle's law) and is sensitive to a volume change of as little as 1 microliters. Fetal and neonatal rats during the period of rapid lung development from day 19.5 of gestation (term = day 22) to day 3.5 postnatum were studied. The absolute lung volume at a transrespiratory pressure of 30-40 cmH2O increased 28-fold from 0.036 +/- 0.006 (SE) to 0.994 +/- 0.042 ml, the volume per gram of lung increased 14-fold from 0.39 +/- 0.07 to 5.59 +/- 0.66 ml/g, compliance increased 12-fold from 2.3 +/- 0.4 to 27.3 +/- 2.7 microliters/cmH2O, and specific compliance increased 6-fold from 24.9 +/- 4.5 to 152.3 +/- 22.8 microliters.cmH2O-1.g lung-1. This technique, which allowed us to compare changes during late gestation and the early neonatal period in small rodents, can be used to monitor and evaluate pulmonary functional changes after in utero pharmacological therapies in experimentally induced abnormalities such as pulmonary hypoplasia, surfactant deficiency, and congenital diaphragmatic hernia.