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Wiltz Wagner, the V.K. Stoelting Professor of anesthesia and professor of cellular and integrative physiology, biophysics and pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, has received the Robert F. Grover Prize from the ATS Pulmonary Circulation Assembly for outstanding contributions in studying the effects of hypoxia and high altitude on the pulmonary circulation. Wagner is internationally recognized for his research on the lung. Much of his work has focused on the microscopic gas exchange vessels in the lung and how blood flow is controlled in the lung capillaries. He has pioneered a method—now being used in other laboratories—for studying capillary blood flow directly in the living lung.
Techniques developed by his research laboratory for video recording microcirculatory blood flow using fluorescence microscopy, laser illumination, and computer image enhancement have produced exciting new data that are being analyzed by mathematical techniques. The most recent analyses have shown that the gas exchange portion of the lung is surprisingly robust. The gas exchange membranes in the lung are among the most delicate in the body, yet are exposed directly to the environment. Wagner’s insight about the robust character of the pulmonary gas exchange vessels suggests a previously unsuspected elegance of design.
After decades of work studying the normal lung and its response to low oxygen, Wagner’s research team has begun investigating an emphysema model which has promise for showing how gas exchange is disrupted by the disease. In a related area, he has developed the only theory that explains why some species develop pulmonary hypertension at high altitude. Testing of the theory has led to travels into the wilds of South America.
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