The Oxygen Consumption Of Rabbit Lung Slices After Pneumothorax1

We produced a pneumothorax on the left side in rabbits and measured the oxygen consumption of lung slices from previously collapsed left and non-collapsed right lung immediately after in vitro re-expansion. After re-expansion, the oxygen consumptions of the previously collapsed and non-collapsed lungs were almost identical, 162 ± 6.7 and 168.6 ± 9.6 μ1 of oxygen consumed per hour per mg of deoxyribonucleic acid (mean ± SE), respectively. We concluded that 3 days of collapse does not impair the oxidative metabolism of re-expanded lung.b