Shock Wave Therapy Enhances Mitochondrial Delivery into Target Cells and Protects against Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

This study tested the hypothesis that shock wave therapy (SW) enhances mitochondrial uptake into the lung epithelial and parenchymal cells to attenuate lung injury from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS was induced in rats through continuous inhalation of 100% oxygen for 48 h, while SW entailed application 0.15 mJ/mm2 for 200 impulses at 6 Hz per left/right lung field. In vitro and ex vivo studies showed that SW enhances mitochondrial uptake into lung epithelial and parenchyma cells (all p