Effect of clemastine fumarate on seawater drowning induced acute lung injury in rats

Shan Qi; Zhou Kun; Chen Zhuo; Li Hong

doi:10.3760/j.issn.1673-4777.2019.10.012

Abstract：Objective To explore the effect of clemastine fumarate on seawater drowning induced acute lung injury( SW-ALI) in rats. Methods Thirty-six male SD rats aged 6 weeks were randomly divided into control group, drowning group and observation group, with 12 rats in each group. The drowning group and observation group were made SW-ALI models by intratracheal injection of artificial sea water 4 ml/kg under anesthesia; the drowning group had intramuscular injection of 0. 9％ sodium chloride solution;the observation group had intramuscular injection of clemastine fumarate 1 mg/kg. Blood samples were collected from eyeballs after 6 hours; plasma interleukin-6(IL-6), IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) were tested by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Pulmonary edema was measured by dry/wet weight ratio of lung tissue. Expressions of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB) mRNA and protein in lung tissue were detected by real-time quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Results Compared with the control group, levels of plasma IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-αsignificantly increased, dry/wet weight ratio of lung tissue significantly decreased;mRNA expression levels of TLR4 and NF-κB significantly increased[(4. 45 ± 0. 86),(3. 06 ± 0. 52) vs (1. 02 ± 0. 10), (6. 71 ± 2. 08),(3. 02 ± 1. 17) vs (1. 11 ± 0. 28)], protein expression levels of NF-κB significantly increased[(0. 72 ± 0. 13),(0. 44 ± 0. 10) vs (0. 24 ± 0. 05)] in the drowning group and observation group(all P<0. 05). Levels of plasma IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α in the observation group were significantly lower, dry/wet weight ratio of lung tissue was significantly higher, mRNA and protein expression levels of TLR4 and NF-κB were significantly lower than those in the drowning group(all P<0. 05). Conclusion Clemastine fumarate can alleviate SW-ALI in rats, which may be related to the inhibition on inflammatory factors and TLR4/NF-κB pathway.