The Role of Leukocytes in the Pathogenesis of Fibrin Deposition in Bovine Acute Lung Injury

The peculiarly fibrinous nature of bovine acute lung injury due to infection with Pasteurella haemolytica A1 suggests an imbalance between leukocyte-directed procoagulant and profibrinolytic influences in the inflamed bovine lung. Calves with experimental pneumonia produced by intratracheal inoculation with P. haemolytica A1 developed acute locally extensive cranioventral fibrinopurulent bronchopneumonia. Pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM) recovered by segmental lavage from affected lung lobes were 30 times more procoagulant than PAM obtained from unaffected lung lobes and 37-fold more procoagulant than PAM from control calf lungs. Unlike the enhancement of procoagulant activity, profibrinolytic activity (plasminogen activator amidolysis) of total lung leukocytes (PAM and plasminogen activator neutrophils [PMN]) was decreased 23 times in cells obtained from affected lung lobes and also was decreased four times in cells obtained from unaffected lobes of infected animals. This marked imbalance in cellular procoagulant and fibrinolytic activity probably contributes significantly to enhanced fibrin deposition and retarded fibrin removal. In addition, PAM from inflamed lungs were strongly positive for bovine tissue factor antigen as demonstrated by immunocytochemistry. Intensely tissue factor-positive PAM enmeshed in fibrinocellular exudates and positive alveolar walls were situated such that they were likely to have, in concert, initiated extrinsic activation of coagulation in the acutely inflamed lung. These data collectively suggest that enhanced PAM-directed procoagulant activity and diminished PAM- and PMN-directed profibrinolytic activity represent important modifications of local leukocyte function in bovine acute lung injury that are central to the pathogenesis of lesion development with extensive fibrin deposition and retarded fibrin removal.