The present study was designed to determine the effect of various core temperatures on acute lung injury induced by ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) in our isolated rabbit lung model. Typical acute lung injury was successfully induced by 30min of ischemia followed by 90min of reperfusion observation. The I/R elicited a significant increase in pulmonary arterial pressure, microvascular permeability (measured by using the capillary filtration coefficient, K fc ), ΔK fc ratio, lung weight gain and the protein concentration of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Mild hypothermia significantly attenuated acute lung injury induced by I/R, all parameters having decreased significantly (p<0.05); conversely, mild hyperthermia did not further exacerbate acute lung injury. These experimental data suggest that mild hypothermia significantly ameliorated acute lung injury induced by ischemia–reperfusion in rabbits.