233 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF AZITHROMYCIN ON HYPEROXIC LUNG INJURY IN NEONATAL RATS

Hyperoxia is a major cause of lung injury in premature infants and along with other risk factors contributes to the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). To assess if azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic with anti-inflammatory effects, could be beneficial for the treatment of BPD we conducted an experiment to evaluate the effects of azithromycin in neonatal rats exposed to hyperoxia. A total of 64 rats were divided equally into 4 groups: room air control, room air azithromycin, hyperoxia control, and hyperoxia azithromycin. The hyperoxia groups were exposed to > 95% oxygen from day of life 4 to day 14. Animals who completed the experiment (n = 56) were sacrificed for histologic analysis of their lungs and protein analysis of lung tissue lysate. Mean linear intercept (MLI) was significantly lower in the control groups vs the hyperoxia groups (p