Tumor necrosis factor-α induced protein 6 attenuates acute lung injury following paraquat exposure

Abstract

Context: Paraquat exposure commonly occurs in the developing countries and the mortality rate is high. However, there is currently no consensus on the efficacy of treatment for paraquat exposure.

Objective: The study was aimed to explore the effects of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) induced protein 6 (TSG-6) on acute lung injury (ALI) following paraquat exposure in rats.

Materials and methods: Male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into the sham group (n = 8), the paraquat group (n = 8), and the paraquat TSG-6-treated group (n = 8). Rats were administered with 50 mg/kg of paraquat intraperitoneally. At 1 h after exposure, rats were treated with 30 μg of recombinant human TSG-6 (rhTSG-6) intraperitoneally. After 6 h of exposure, ALI scores were evaluated by histology and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in lung was assayed using real-time RT-PCR.

Results: ALI scores were significantly lower in the paraquat TSG-6-treated group, compared with the paraquat group (p < 0.05). The expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α mRNA was significantly lower in the paraquat TSG-6-treated group, compared with the paraquat group (p < 0.01, respectively).

Discussion and conclusion: Administration of rhTSG-6 attenuates ALI following paraquat exposure by suppressing inflammatory response.

• Inflammation
• lung injury
• paraquat
• tumor necrosis factor-α induced protein 6

Acknowledgements

The authors thank H. E. Cheng for providing technical help in pathological examination.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest.