title: Attenuating effect of pretreatment with Yiqifumai on lipopolysaccharide-induced intestine injury and survival rate in rat.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Yiqifumai is a traditional Chinese medicine compound preparation used for treatment of microcirculatory disturbance-related diseases in China. We have previous reported that pretreatment with Yiqifumai could improve the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced microcirculatory disturbance in rat mesentery. The present study intended to investigate the effect of pretreatment with Yiqifumai on intestine injury and survival rate of the rats subjected to LPS challenge.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male Wistar rats were continuously infused with LPS (5 mg kg-1 body weight h-1) via the left jugular vein for 90 min. In some rats, Yiqifumai 80 (mg/kg) was administrated through the left jugular vein 10 min before LPS infusion. The mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), rectal temperature (RT), respiratory rate (RR) and survival rate were measured at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after LPS infusion. At 72 h after exposure to LPS, the intestine morphology was observed under a stereomicroscope and the immunohistochemistry staining of intestine was conducted to evaluate the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) and the number of myeloperoxidase (MPO) positive cells in tissue. After observation of intestine microcirculation, blood was collected from the abdominal aorta of each animal to analyze the level of inflammatory markers in plasma, including TNF-α and MCP-1.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the control, LPS infusion significantly decreased MAP and the survival rate and increased the HR, RT and RR, as well as elicited leukocyte infiltration, intestine hemorrhage, enhanced expression of ICAM-1 and raised level of inflammatory markers. All of indicators, except for the RT, were significantly attenuated by Yiqifumai, in contrast to the LPS group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results demonstrated the potential of pretreatment with Yiqifumai to ameliorate rat intestine injury, inflammatory response to LPS and the decrease in survival rate caused by LPS challenge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qiu-Hong
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Tasly Microcirculation Research Center, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Tasly Microcirculation Research Center, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing-Yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease, Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing, China, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shu-Wen
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Ma