Inhalation of hydrogen gas protects against mitomycin-induced pulmonary veno-occlusive disease
Zhang C et al. · Respir Res. 2024;25:281.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Randomized four-group rat prevention-and-treatment experiment
Respiratory health
Other forms
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Female Sprague-Dawley rats with mitomycin-C-induced pulmonary veno-occlusive disease
60 rats, n=15/group; smaller prespecified subsets were used for hemodynamic, imaging and tissue assays
One hour twice daily for either 28 days (prevention) or 14 days (delayed treatment)
42% H₂ mixture for 1 hour twice daily, started either with mitomycin C for 28 days or after 14 days for a further 14 days
Diluted oxyhydrogen: Brown’s gas was generated first, then diluted with nitrogen to 42% H₂, 21% O₂ and 37% N₂.
Final chamber mixture: 42% H₂, 21% O₂ and 37% N₂; total flow 3.8 L/min.
1,596 mL/min H₂ — calculated from the reported 42% H₂ in a 3.8 L/min total mixture.
798 mL/min O₂ — calculated from the reported 21% O₂ in the 3.8 L/min total mixture.
Normal-air control and mitomycin-C disease control without H₂
Outcomes and reported result
Survival, pulmonary hemodynamics, right-heart function and hypertrophy, vascular remodeling, inflammation, oxidative stress and EndoMT markers
The article reports improved hemodynamic, right-heart, vascular, inflammatory and oxidative measures in both H₂ schedules.
Allocation, gas generation, final mixture, total flow, methods, figures, funding and conflicts checked in the open-access full text. One figure caption prints 33% N₂, while the methods state 37% and sum to 100%.
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
Chemotherapy-induced rat model, repeated high-concentration gas exposure and multiple mechanistic outcomes. Calculated component flows are not direct flow-meter readings for each gas.
Mitomycin-C-induced pulmonary veno-occlusive disease in rats, not human pulmonary hypertension.
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: 39014440 · DOI: 10.1186/s12931-024-02906-y
Open-access full text is available through PMC and the publisher.
Open-access publisher/PMC full text and PubMed record; no retraction or expression of concern was shown in the checked records on 7 August 2026.
2026-08-10