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RATIONALE: Fetal lung liquid secretion is coupled with chloride transport into the lung lumen. The postnatal clearance of lung liquid is dependent on osmotic force generated by active sodium absorption. OBJECTIVE: To study the interaction between airway epithelial sodium transport and postnatal lung function. METHODS: We determined lung compliance and nasal transepithelial potential difference as a measure of airway ion transport and epithelial sodium channel gene expression in 41 healthy newborn infants during the first 50 h after birth. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Lung compliance improved significantly during the study period, whereas nasal potential difference remained constant. There was a significant decrease in the expressions of beta and gamma subunits of the epithelial sodium channel. A positive correlation existed between amiloride-sensitive nasal potential difference measured at 1-4 h of age and lung compliance at 21-27 h of age. We found no correlation between the molecular data and functional measurements. CONCLUSIONS: An important part of pulmonary adaptation takes place during the first hour after birth. The improvement of lung compliance continues over the first postnatal days and coincides with down-regulation of epithelial sodium channel beta and gamma subunit expression.
Helve et al. (Fri,) studied this question.