Fig. 5: Reduced primary graft dysfunction (PGD) in treated recipients.

a PaO₂/FiO₂ ratios for all groups were followed from before transplantation in the recipient to 48 h of follow-up. The first arrow indicates a left pneumonectomy followed by left lung transplantation (LP followed by L LTx) and the second arrow depicts the time of right pneumonectomy (RP). Statistical significance applies to direct comparison of two-step treatment to the non-treated group b Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) data (left) and c PaO₂/FiO₂ ratios (right) for all groups at the end of the experiment including all recipients. d Comparison of PGD grades following transplantation. All graphs represent data from either the two-step treated recipient lungs (n = 6), the one-step treated recipient (n = 4) or non-treated lungs (n = 6, n = 5 following 9 h post transplantation). Statistically significant differences between groups were tested with two-sided Student’s T-test and within groups with ANOVA when data were normally distributed. The two-sided Mann–Whitney test and the Kruskal–Wallis test were used when data were not normally distributed. Chi-squared analysis was performed to analyze observed frequencies of categorical PGD grades. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. All values represent the mean ± standard deviation.