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Taraxacum officinale protects against lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice

2010; Elsevier BV; Volume: 130; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jep.2010.05.029

1872-7573

Liu Li-ben, Huanzhang Xiong, Jiaqi Ping, Yulin Ju, Xuemei Zhang,

High Altitude and Hypoxia

Taraxacum officinale has been frequently used as a remedy for inflammatory diseases. In the present study, we investigated the in vivo protective effect of Taraxacum officinale on acute lung injury (ALI) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in mice. Taraxacum officinale at 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg was orally administered once per day for 5 days consecutively, followed by 500 μg/kg LPS was instilled intranasally. The lung wet/dry weight (W/D) ratio, protein concentration and the number of inflammatory cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were determined. Superoxidase dismutase (SOD) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activities, and histological change in the lungs were examined. The levels of inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the BALF were measured using ELISA. We found that Taraxacum officinale decreased the lung W/D ratio, protein concentration and the number of neutrophils in the BALF at 24 h after LPS challenge. Taraxacum officinale decreased LPS-induced MPO activity and increased SOD activity in the lungs. In addition, histopathological examination indicated that Taraxacum officinale attenuated tissue injury of the lungs in LPS-induced ALI. Furthermore, Taraxacum officinale also inhibited the production of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6 in the BALF at 6 h after LPS challenge in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that Taraxacum officinale protects against LPS-induced ALI in mice.