RESUMO
1. Postnatal mortality in isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is mainly related to the associated pulmonary hypertension (PH) and to right-to-left shunting. 2. Endothelins (ETs) are potent vasoconstrictors and pro-mitogenic peptides. Strong evidences support their participation in CDH and in the etiology of PH via the activation of ET(A) receptors (ET(A)-Rs). 3. Evaluation of the effect of ABT-627, a selective non-peptidic ET(A)-R antagonist, given from -15 to 210 min post-delivery (1 mg kg(-1) bolus +0.01 mg kg(-1) h(-1) infusion, i.v.), was conducted in the lamb model of CDH. 4. Severity of CDH was assessed in comparison to untreated controls (n=5). Untreated CDH lambs (n=7) had a higher mean pulmonary arterial pressure (MPAP; P<0.0001), lower mean blood pressure (MBP; P=0.0004), higher MPAP / MBP ratio (P<0.0001), lower arterial pH (P<0.0001), higher paCO(2) (P<0.0001), lower paO(2) (P<0.0001) and lower post-ductal pulsatile SaO(2) (P<0.0001) than untreated controls. 5. Treated controls (n=7) showed a higher MPAP, lower MBP, higher MPAP/MBP ratio, lower arterial pH, higher paCO(2), lower paO(2), lower post-ductal pulsatile SaO(2) and lower plasmatic ir-ET ratios compared to untreated controls (P<0.0001). 6. Treated CDH lambs (n=8) showed a higher MBP (P<0.0001), lower MPAP / MBP ratio (P<0.0001), higher arterial pH (P<0.0001), lower paCO(2) (P<0.0001), higher paO(2) (P=0.0228), higher post-ductal pulsatile SaO(2) (P=0.0016) and lower plasmatic ir-ET ratios (P=0.0247) when compared to untreated CDH lambs. 7. These observations revealed that, although acute perinatal treatment with a selective non-peptidic ET(A)-R antagonist had some adverse effects in controls, it attenuated the progressive cardiopulmonary deterioration that occurred after birth in CDH lambs.