Experimental Study of Intervention of Yiqi Huaxian Decoction on Rats Pulmonary Fibrosis

Objective To observe the effect of Yiqi Huaxian Decoction (YHD) on transforming growth factor β1(TGF-β1 )mRNA expression in rats alveolar macrophages (AM) and pulmonary interstitial macrophages (IM).Methods Ninety-six Wistar rats were randomized into sham-operation group,model group,YHD (4 g·kg-1·d-1) group,and hydrocortisone (20 mg·kg-1·d-1) group.Bleomycin A5 was injected into the rats' trachea to induce pulmonary fibrosis.AM and IM were isolated for the culturing after modeling for 7 and 28 days.Molecular in-situ hybridization (ISH) was used for the detection of TGF-β1 expression in AM and IM.Results Percentage of cells in AM and IM with TGF-β1 positive expression and the score of optic density were increased in the model group (P0.01 compared with those in sham-operation group),YHD had an effect on deceasing the above two indexes (P0.01),and its effect was similar to that of hydrocortisone.Conclusion The therapeutic mechanism of YHD is probably related with the decrease of TGF-β1 expression and the inhibition of fibrosis.