Protective Effects of Hong Shan Capsule against Lethal Total-Body Irradiation-Induced Damage in Wistar Rats.
Hong Shan Capsule (HSC), a crude drug of 11 medicinal herbs, was used in clinical practice for the treatment of radiation injuries in China. In this study, we investigated its protection in rats against acute lethal total-body irradiation (TBI). Pre-administration of HSC reduced the radiation sickness characteristics, while increasing the 30-day survival of the irradiated rats. Administration of HSC also reduced the radiation sickness characteristics and increased the 30-day survival of mice after exposure to lethal TBI. Ultrastructural observation illustrated that the pretreatment of rats with HSC significantly attenuated the TBI-induced morphological changes in the different organs of irradiated rats. Gene expression profiles revealed the dramatic effect of HSC on alterations of gene expression caused by lethal TBI. Pretreatment with HSC prevented differential expression of 66% (1398 genes) of 2126 genes differentially expressed in response to TBI. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these genes were mainly involved in a total of 32 pathways, such as pathways in cancer and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Our analysis indicated that the pretreatment of rats with HSC modulated these pathways induced by lethal TBI, such as multiple MAPK pathways, suggesting that pretreatment with HSC might provide protective effects on lethal TBI mainly or partially through the modulation of these pathways. Our data suggest that HSC has the potential to be used as an effective therapeutic or radio-protective agent to minimize irradiation damage.
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. lijianzhong1234@hotmail.com.
Jianzhong
J
Li
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. xujing0601103@live.cn.|Department of Pharmacy, East Hospital, Dongji University, Shanghai 200085, China. xujing0601103@live.cn.
Jing
J
Xu
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. xuweiheng7114@163.com.
Weiheng
W
Xu
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. qyangangle@sina.com.
Yang
Y
Qi
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. bluesluyi@sina.com.
Yiming
Y
Lu
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. qlcong021@163.com.
Lei
L
Qiu
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. zhenlinhu@hotmail.com.
Zhenlin
Z
Hu
Department of Preventive Medicine, Naval Medical Research Institute, Shanghai 200433, China. zhiyongchu@tom.com.
Zhiyong
Z
Chu
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. yfchai@smmu.edu.cn.
Yifeng
Y
Chai
School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. jpzhang08@hotmail.com.
Junping
J
Zhang
D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000528:radiation effects; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D011833:Radiation Injuries, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents
Hong Shan capsule (HSC); gene expression; lethal total-body irradiation; radioprotection; signaling pathways