Protective Effects of Liver X receptor-α Activator T0901317 on Rats with Acute Lung Injury

Objective To explore the protective effects of liver X receptor-α activator(LXRα) T0901317 on rats with acute lung injury(ALI).Methods Seventy-two male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three goups,ie.a control group,a LPS group,and a T0901317 group.Artery blood gas analysis,lung tissue wet/dry weight ratio,myeloperoxidase activity,and lung histopathological changes were measured.The expressions of LXRα and TNF-α mRNA in lung tissue were detected by RT-PCR.The protein levels of TNF-α and LXRα were examined with ELISA and immunohistochemistry,respectively.Results In the ALI rats,PaO2 decreased,lung W/D weight ratio and myeloperoxidase activity increased significantly compared with the control group(P0.05).Histopathological examination also revealed obvious lung injury.In the LPS group,the expression of TNF-α mRNA in lung tissue and the level of TNF-α protein in lung homogenate and serum increased markedly(all P0.05) while the expression of LXR-α mRNA declined significantly(P0.05).Immunohistochemical staining showed that lung tissues of the normal rats expressed LXRα significantly but in the LPS group the expression of TNF-α and LXR-α in lung tissue decreased markedly(P0.05).After the treatment with T0901317,the expressions of LXR-α in lung tissues were significantly higher than those in the LPS group both at the mRNA and the protein level(P0.05).Conclusion T0901317 plays an anti-inflammatory effect through up-regulating the expression of LXR-α and suppressing the expression of TNF-α,thus reduces the infiltration and aggregation of inflammatory cells in lung tissue.