We report studies of the effect of ischemia on the metabolic activity of the intact perfused lung and its restoration after a period of reperfusion. Two groups of rat lungs were studied using hyperpolarized 1-(13) C pyruvate to compare the rate of lactate labeling differing only in the temporal ordering of ischemic and normoxic acquisitions. In both cases, a several-fold increase in lactate labeling was observed immediately after a 25-min ischemia event as was its reversal back to the baseline after 30-40 min of resumed perfusion (n = 5, p < 0.025 for both comparisons). These results were corroborated by (31) P spectroscopy and correspond well to measured changes in lactate pool size determined by (1) H spectroscopy of freeze-clamped specimens.
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