Effects of ergosterone on lipopolysaccharideinduced acute lung injury and nucleo side-binding oligomerization domain, leucine-rich repeats and pyrin domain containing protein 3 inflammatory signaling pathway in mice

Abstract

Ergosterone has been found to have a diversity of pharmacological effects, but the effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced Acute Lung Injury (ALI) is not very clear. This study is aimed at assessing the action of ergosterone on LPS-induced ALI. Mice on the 7th day of ergosterone prophylactic treatment were intranasally administered with an appropriate amount of LPS one hour before administration. After 12 hours, W/D ratio, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, P-selectin, ICAM-1, NO, SOD and MDA levels were tested by ELISA in the obtained tissues. Besides, western blot was used to detect NLRP3, ASC, pro-caspase-1, caspase-1, pro-IL-1β and IL-1β leves. The results indicated that ergosterone pretreatment apparently brought down W/D ratio, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, NO and MDA in lung tissues, and significantly increased SOD levels. Furthermore, ergosterone significantly inhibited the activation of NLRP3 induced by LPS. The results indicated that ergosterone has a significant protective action on ALI induced by LPS, and may inhibit the activation of the NLRP3 signaling pathway.