부산대학교 도서관

Severe intoxications with bromcarbamides often show respiratory complications. To answer the question if there is a direct effect of the drug on lung tissue we investigated the incorporation of radioactive labelled choline and palmitate into lung lecithin. The phospholipid metabolism is in close relation to the surfactant system of the lung. Secondly we compared the influence of bromcarbamides with other hypnotic drugs. In all animals of our experiments there was a reduction of palmitate incorporation into lung lecithin down to 40%, whereas the incorporation of choline increases in bromcarbamide-intoxication. The relation between palmitate and choline incorporation was 6.77 in the controls and it decreases to 2–3 in the bromcarbamide group. The total phospholipid content in the lung/g wet weight remained unchanged in all experiments. From this data we conclude, that under these drugs, most pronounced under bromcarbamides, there is a reduction of fatty acid exchange of the lecithin molecules of the lung. This might lead to the production of non surface active lecithin. The clinical and the morphological aspects of severe bromcarbamide intoxication are consistent with a perturbation of the surfactant function.