Ejaculation does not contribute to the stress response to electroejaculation in sheep.

Electroejaculation procedures (EEPs) provoke stress; nevertheless, ejaculation produces physiological changes similar as those usually used to measure stress responses. The application of EEP to animals that cannot ejaculate-as ewes-may be useful to discriminate the responses induced by ejaculation from those provoked by EEP. The aim was to determine the stress response to EEP in rams and ewes. The EEPs were applied to 10 rams and 10 ewes during the non-breeding season, and the number of vocalizations, the heart rate, rectal temperature, serum cortisol concentration, biochemical and haematological parameters were measured. Overall, EEP provoked increases in cortisol concentration, glycaemia, rectal temperature and concentration of creatine kinase (all them: p < .0001) as well as relative concentration of granulocytes (p = .003) and absolute granulocyte concentration (p = .0002) in both, rams and ewes. Heart rate, relative concentration of lymphocytes (p = .001), haematocrit (p = .02) and haemoglobin (p = .045) decreased in animals from both genders after EEP. Besides, cortisol (p < .0001), rectal temperature (p = .002) and glycaemia (p = .001) were greater in ewes than rams, and creatine kinase also tended to be greater in ewes than rams (p = .054). On the other hand, the number of animals that vocalized (p = .006), white blood cells (p = .02) and absolute lymphocytes (p = .02) were greater in rams than ewes. The general trends show a similar pattern of stress responses in animals from both genders. Therefore, we concluded that ejaculation does not contribute to the stress response provoked by the EEP. This procedure also provokes muscular damage and probably pain.

Papel de la microcirculación en el desarrollo de la lesión pulmonar aguda inducida por la ventilación mecánica / Role of microvasculature in the development of acute lung injury induced by mechanical ventilation

La presión capilar pulmonar es uno de los determinantes de la formación de edema pulmonar y además favorece el desarrollo de lesión pulmonar inducida por la ventilación mecánica (VILI). En consecuencia, en los enfermos críticos sometidos a ventilación mecánica (VM), la determinación ajustada de la presión capilar cobra mayor relevancia. El flujo vascular también es un factor determinante de la lesión pulmonar aguda, cuyo incremento favorece una mayor lesión pulmonar. El aumento de estas variables fisiológicas determina un incremento del estrés mecánico sobre las células del endotelio capilar pulmonar, lo que puede inducir una respuesta inflamatoria endotelial y favorecer la aparición o el empeoramiento de la lesión pulmonar aguda. En consecuencia, reducir el estrés vascular pulmonar puede disminuir la lesión pulmonar aguda en modelos experimentales

Pulmonary wedge pressure is one of the determinants of pulmonary edema and in addition favors the development of pulmonary injury induced by mechanical ventilation (PIMV). Accordingly, in the critically ill patients subject to mechanical ventilation (MV), the precise determination of pulmonary wedge pressure gain in importance. Vascular flow is also a decisive factor in acute pulmonary injury, and its increase favors a more intense pulmonary injury. The increase of these physiological variables determines an increment in mechanical stress on the cells of pulmonary capillary endothelium, and this stress can induce an endothelial inflammatory response with appearance or worsening of acute pulmonary injury. Accordingly, reducing pulmonary vascular stress can diminish acute lung injury in experimental models