Effect of nitrogen dioxide exposure on rat lung lipids.

Rats were exposed continuously to 40 ppm nitrogen dioxide for 4 hours. The phospholipid contents and fatty acid compositions were determined in homogenates and subcellular fractions of rat lungs immediately after exposure. There were no significant changes in the total phospholipid content or phospholipid concentration as a result of nitrogen dioxide exposure. In addition, nitrogen dioxide did not induce any significant changes in the fatty acid composition of the lung phospholipids, with the exception of arachidonic and docosapentanoic acids in the mitochondrial fraction, which showed a slight increase over the air-exposed control.