Tripeptide feG Prevents and Ameliorates Acute Pancreatitis-Associated Acute Lung Injury in a Rodent Model

Abstract

The synthetic tripeptide feG (D-Phe-D-Glu-Gly) is a novel pharmacologic agent that decreases neutrophil recruitment, infiltration, and activation in various animal models of inflammatory disease. We aimed to investigate the effect of feG as both a preventive treatment when administered before acute lung injury and as a therapeutic treatment administered following initiation of acute lung injury. Lung injury was assessed following prophylactic or therapeutic intratracheal feG administration in a “two-hit” rodent model of acute pancreatitis plus intratracheal lipopolysaccharide. Following both prophylactic and therapeutic feG administration, there were significant improvements in arterial blood oxygenation and respiratory mechanics and decreased lung edema, BAL protein concentration, histologic tissue injury scores, BAL cell infiltration, and lung myeloperoxidase activity. Most indices of lung damage were reduced to baseline control values. feG reduced leukocyte infiltration, ameliorated the severity of inflammatory damage, and restored lung function when administered either prophylactically or therapeutically in a two-hit rat model of acute pancreatitis plus intratracheal lipopolysaccharide.