FIGURE 11.

ANP prevents lung vascular leak in the two-hit model of acute lung injury and stimulates PAK1 signaling and microtubule stability. Mice were subjected to mechanical ventilation at HTV (30 ml/kg, 4 h) with or without TRAP6 injection or left spontaneously ventilated. Animals were injected with ANP or sterile saline, immediately followed by mechanical ventilation. A, lung barrier dysfunction was evaluated by measurements of protein concentration in BAL. *, p < 0.05 versus TRAP/HTV. B, lung vascular leak was evaluated visually by Evans blue accumulation in the lung tissue samples. C, quantitative spectrophotometric analysis of Evans blue extracted from the lung tissue samples. *, p < 0.05 versus TRAP/HTV. Error bars, S.D.