Profiling molecular changes induced by hydrogen treatment of lung allografts prior to procurement
Tanaka Y, Shigemura N, Kawamura T, Noda K, Isse K, Stolz DB, Billiar TR, Toyoda Y, Bermudez CA, Lyons-Weiler J, Nakao A. · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2012;425(4):873–879.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Controlled donor-rat ventilation and cold-storage mechanistic study
Respiratory health
Inhaled H₂
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Lewis rat donor lungs mechanically ventilated before procurement and four hours of cold preservation; graft tissue was analyzed before implantation.
The article does not provide one overall animal total. Outcome-specific molecular assays generally used n=4 per group; selected protein/MAPK experiments used n=3 per group.
Three-hour donor ventilation followed by procurement and four hours of cold storage; selected reperfusion-linked protein assays were also described.
Mechanical ventilation of donor rats for three hours with 2% H₂ and 98% O₂ before lung procurement and four-hour cold Perfadex storage.
2% H₂ with 98% O₂ — not Brown's gas because the H₂:O₂ proportions were not 2:1.
Gas concentrations were explicit, but supply flow was not reported. Ventilator tidal volume and respiratory rate do not establish the delivered source flow and are not used to infer mL/min.
Not reported — gas-supply flow is absent.
98% O₂; mL/min flow not reported because gas-supply flow is absent.
Three-hour ventilation with 2% N₂ and 98% O₂; a sham group received five minutes of 100% O₂ before immediate lung removal.
Outcomes and reported result
Gene-array expression, confirmatory RT-PCR, surfactant-related proteins, lamellar bodies, ATP-synthase transcripts, tissue ATP, HSP70, C/EBP transcription factors and MAPK signaling.
H₂ altered 229 array genes, with increases in several surfactant-, ATP-synthase- and stress-response measures and decreases in selected genes/proteins such as PLUNC. No obvious histopathological differences were seen before implantation; this experiment primarily examined mechanisms and did not itself test transplant function or recipient survival.
The complete free PMC article was checked for ventilation conditions, outcome-specific samples, array and validation findings, the histopathology null observation, funding and available disclosures.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Small outcome-specific rat samples, no one total sample reported, mechanism-focused gene-array work with many comparisons, oxygen-rich carrier, no gas-supply flow, tissue assessed mainly before implantation and no recipient clinical outcomes in this article. NIH and departmental support was reported; no explicit conflict statement was identified, so absence is not inferred.
Mechanistic donor-lung study in rats; it does not establish benefit or safety in human lung transplantation.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 22902635 · DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.08.005
Free full article in PubMed Central.
Complete PMC article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
2026-08-10