title: Asialoerythropoietin ameliorates bleomycin-induced acute lung injury in rabbits by reducing inflammation.
abstract: Acute lung injury, a critical illness characterized by acute respiratory failure with bilateral pulmonary infiltrates, remains unresponsive to current treatments. The condition involves injury to the alveolar capillary barrier, neutrophil accumulation and the induction of proinflammatory cytokines followed by lung fibrosis. In the present study, a rabbit model of bleomycin-induced acute lung injury was established to examine the effects of asialoerythropoietin (AEP), an agent with tissue-protective activities, on pulmonary inflammation. Six Japanese white rabbits were randomly divided into two equal groups. Acute lung injury was induced in all rabbits by intratracheally injecting bleomycin. The control group was injected with bleomycin only; the experimental (AEP) group was injected intravenously with AEP (80 μg/kg) prior to the bleomycin injection. Computed tomography (CT) studies were performed seven days later. The CT inflammatory scores of areas exhibiting abnormal density and the pathological inflammatory scores were recorded as a ratio on a 7×7 mm grid. The CT and pathological inflammatory scores were significantly different between the control and AEP groups [122±10 and 16.3±1.5 (controls) vs. 71±8.5 and 9.7±1.4 (AEP), respectively; P<0.01]. Thus, the present study revealed that AEP prevents bleomycin-induced acute lung injury in rabbits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Akinaga
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sonoda
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nitta
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideji
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Otani
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Shobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mukaisho
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomozawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagatani
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murata
keywords: acute lung injury; asialoerythropoietin; bleomycin; rabbit; score