Effect of xuebijing on caspase-3 and inflammatory factors expression in acute respiratory distress syndrome rat model with paraquat poisoning

Abstract

Objective To study the effect of xuebijing on the expression of Caspase-3 in lung tissues and inflammatory factors in serum in acute respiratory distress syndrome rat model with paraquat poisoning. Methods Selecting 50 healthy rats and dividing into 5 groups randomly, Control group, Paraquat group, Low-dose xuebijing group(LD), Middle-dose xuebijing group(MD), High-dose xuebijing group(HD). Using 25 mg/kg paraquat solution to establish the animal model. 14 μmol/kg, 28 μmol/kg, 56 μmol/kg xuebijing solution were injected into the abdominal cavity in LD, MD and HD group respectively, and the same dose of normal saline was injected into Control and Paraquat group. The expression levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in plasma were detected by ELISA after 24 hours, Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression levels of caspase-3 in the right lung tissue, and TUNEL method was used to detect apoptosis in the right lung tissue. Results The expression levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in plasma were significantly increased after paraquat poisoning, and expression of Caspase-3 protein was also significantly increased in lung tissue(P<0.01). After different dose of xuebijing treatment, the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in plasma and the protein expression of Caspase-3 in lung tissue were much lower than those in Paraquat group, but still higher than those in Control group(P<0.05), the apoptosis levels in MD and HD group were much lower than those in Paraquat group(P<0.05). Conclusions Xuebijing can significantly reduce the level of inflammatory factors in plasma, suppress the Caspase-3 protein expression and apoptosis in lung tissue in acute respiratory distress syndrome rat model with paraquat poisoning. Key words: xuebijing; Paraquat; Caspase-3; TNF-α; IL-6