Is hyperventilation a physiologically significant stimulus for prostaglandin release in the human pulmonary vascular bed?
The influence of hyperventilation on the pulmonary prostaglandin (PG) release was studied in healthy volunteers. Hyperventilation was forced by adding 8% CO2 to the inhaled air and arterial and mixed venous blood was sampled for radioimmunoassays of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and PGE2. The increased ventilation did not alter the arterio-venous PG concentration differences suggesting that hyperventilation accompanying the activation of chemoreceptors is not a physiologically significant stimulus for the pulmonary PG release in man.