Increasing oxygen tension dilates fetal pulmonary circulation via endothelium-derived relaxing factor.

We examined the role of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) in the increase in pulmonary blood flow caused by increasing oxygen tension in the lungs of the fetus. Fetal lambs at 133 days of gestation were instrumented for intrauterine measurement of pulmonary arterial, left atrial, and amniotic fluid pressure and pulmonary blood flow. Three days later oxygen tension in the pulmonary arterial blood of the fetus was doubled by having the ewe breathe 100% oxygen at 3 atm absolute pressure. In the control fetuses (n = 5), hyperbaric oxygenation increased pulmonary blood flow eightfold. Blocking EDRF production by infusing 45 mg of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine into the superior vena cava of the fetus over 5 min starting 30 min after the beginning of hyperbaric oxygen reversed the increase in pulmonary blood flow (n = 5). Blocking EDRF production by infusing NG-nitro-L-arginine at 1 mg/min for 60 min starting 30 min before hyperbaric oxygen blunted the initial increase in pulmonary blood flow and eliminated it by the end of the experiment (n = 5). As hyperbaric oxygen did not significantly alter pulmonary arterial or left atrial pressure, changes in pulmonary vascular conductance paralleled those in pulmonary blood flow. We conclude that the majority of the vasodilation of the fetal pulmonary circulation caused by increasing oxygen tension is mediated by EDRF. We speculate that EDRF is involved in maintaining low vascular tone at the relatively high oxygen tension of the postnatal lung.