Effect Of Guben Cough Granule On PM2.5 - Induced Lung Injury In Mice

Objective:PM2.5 (Particulate Matter 2.5) is a kind of small and light particals with the aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5μm. It can suspend in the air and carry toxic pollutants to a long distance. Many epidemiological investigation reveals that with environmental pollution becoming much severer, PM2.5 can cause lung and tracheal injury and has obvious adversal influences on the rate of morbidity, mortality and hospitalization for respiratory diseases. However, there are no scientific reports on the specific interventions about this field.Based on the thought of "Preventive Treatment of Disease in TCM", "the unity of heaven and man", "keep healthy, do not be evil" and "to prevent the change after illness" and the preliminary related studies on the traditional Chinese medicine intervention for the injuried respiratory system, this research was intended to evalute the pathological transformation of lung and trachea and the effectiveness of lung function for the PM2.5-induced mouse model with lung injury treated with Gubenzhike pills. We also investigated the defence of "Human body healthy to prevent external evil invasion" for PM2.5-induced lung injury, to find novel ideas to prevent and control the pollution-induced respiratory disease based on the traditional Chinese medicine theroy "preventive treatment of disease".Methods:Established PM2.5-induced mouse model with lung injury by nasal dripping of PM2.5 suspension, the models were divided into 3 groups:normal control, model control and Chinese medicine-treated. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was applied to investigate the pathological transformation of the lung and trachea tissues of PM2.5-indcued mouse models and Gubenkeli pill-treated mouse models. Forced Manoeuvers System was used to analyze the changing of lung functions of PM2.5-induced lung injury mouse model before and after Gubenkeli pill treatment. The influence of lung and trachea tissues and lung functions of PM2.5-induced lung injury mouse model was investigated.Results:The main features of PM2.5-induced mouse model with lung and trachea injury by nasal drip (1.2mg/20 μL/30g) were with inflammatory changes, much obvious inflammatory cells infiltration.mainly with neutrophils, lymphocytes and a small number of f ibroblasts. Small bronchial mucosa was partially injuried, characteristic with thickening of small bronchial wall with bleeding; space between pulmonary alveoli broadened, volume of pulmonary alveoli enlarged, some alveoli broken or fused, secreta seen in the alveolar cavity with proliferation of lymphocytes. Pulmonary interstitium was infiltrated with inflammatory cells, accompanied with thickning at some degree; The walls of pulmonary capillaries were thickened, accompanied with bleeding and effusion of inflammatory substances. After treated by Gubenkeli pills, the inflammation of lung tissues was significantly alleviated with prominently decreasing of inflammatory cells. The lesion of Bronchial mucosa was improved to some extent. The structure of pulmonary alveolus was intact with decreasing secretion and infiltrating of inflammatory cells. The infiltation of inflammatory cells was ameliorated to some extent in pulmonary interstitium. The walls of pulmonary capillaries were intact with less bleeding. The results displayed that inspiratory resistance (IR) and expiratory resistance (ER) in control groups wer significantly higher than those of blank groups (P<0.05). Airway adaptability and maximal expiratory flow were decreased significantly than those of blank groups P<0.05). IR and ER of models treated with traditional Chinese medicine were all obviously less than those of model controls (P<0.05), airway adaptability and maximal expiratory flow higher than blank groups (P<0.05). IR and ER of models treated with traditional Chinese medicine were all slightly higher than those of blank groups (P<0.05), airway adaptability and maximal expiratory flow slightly decreased (P<0.05).Conclusion:The mouse model with lung injury was successfully established by nasal dripping of PM2.5 suspension. After treated by Gubenkeli pills, inflammatory cells in tissues of lung and trachea were significantly decreased, the structures of most alveolus were clear and intact with less effusion of inflammatory substances. It showed that Gubenkeli pills possessed the ability to lessen the inflammatory lesion of respiratory system induced by PM2.5. The pills could decrease the IR and ER of mouse models and improve the adaptibility to strengthen the functionality of respiratory systems.