Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury does not induce pulmonary dysfunction in sheep.

It has already been shown that pulmonary injury is induced after intestinal or hind limb ischemia-reperfusion injury. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of renal ischemia-reperfusion injury on the pulmonary system. We compared the pulmonary effects of 60 and 90 minutes ischemia followed by 24 hour reperfusion in sheep kidneys. Standard hemodynamic measurements, arterial and mixed venous blood gas analysis, urine output, creatinine clearance, and blood urea nitrogen concentration were measured at baseline, during ischemia and reperfusion periods. After 24 hours of reperfusion, animals were sacrificed and underwent autopsy with collection of samples for wet/dry lung-weight ratio, lung tissue conjugated dienes, and renal histology. As expected, renal ischemia resulted in an increased serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen concentrations, decreased creatinine clearance, and histological evidence of renal damage. There was no evidence of pulmonary hypertension or hypoxemia during renal ischemia-reperfusion. There was also no significant difference in the wet/dry lung-weight ratios or lung tissue conjugated denies between the two ischemic groups (60 and 90 minutes) and nonischemic control group. These results suggest that renal ischemia-reperfusion injury was not associated with a significant degree of pulmonary dysfunction.