Figure 3.

eNOS defective mice are less tolerant than WT mice in response to high amplitude mechanical stress featured with severe lung edema. Pulmonary vascular leakage was assessed at 4 h by the extravasation of evans blue dye(EBD) albumin in the lung parenchyma. MV with LV_T caused no change in EBD influx in C57BL/6J mouse lungs, but caused a marked increase of EBD extravasation in eNOS^−/− mouse lungs. In addition, HV_T MV caused a 100% increase of EBD in eNOS^−/− mouse lung in comparison with a 50% increase of EBA in WT mice. n=4 mice/experimental condition. ^bP<0.05 vs Control; ^eP<0.05 vs LV_T; ^hP<0.05 vs WT vent-exposed mice.