The Experimental And Clinical Study On Xianyu Decoction For Treating Radiation Pneumonitis

Radiation Pneumonitis (RP) is a common complication resulting from nuclear radiation accidents, pretreatment of bone marrow transplantation and thoracic tumor radiotherapy. It is a kind of inflammatory response stimulated by the injury of normal lung tissue within the field of radiation. The inflammatory could disappear by itself, or be severe enough to cause fibrosis of the lung, respiratory function damage or even respiratory failure.This concept was first stated by Rbin in1966, followed by a mass of clinical and experimental studies done by other researchers. Thanks to the change of ray types, improving techniques of radiotherapy and further understanding of the biological reaction to radiation, we will gain a great achievement in this field in the near future. Meanwhile, to develop effective drugs for radiation protection is another hotspot of the research. However, there is no reliable drug available so far which makes syndrome differentiation and treatment vital.Our work aimed at studying the protective function and its mechanism of the herbal medicine called Xianyu decoction to acute radiation injury.We first established the acute lung injury model on rats with a single dose of20Gy using6MV X-ray exposing the thorax. Different dosage of Xianyu decoction (5g/kg/d,15g/kg/d,20g/kg/d) was given respectively to observe its preventive effects. The account of mast cell (MC), IL-6protein expression, cytokines (IFN-γ,IL-6, IL-10) gene expression in the lung tissue are also monitored. To further study the mechanism of Xianyu decoction's prevention effect, the method of Serum Pharmacology which is special for Chinese herbs study was used. Human embryo lung fibroblast (CCC-HPF-1) cultured with rat serum contained metabolized Xianyu decoction was studied. In clinical research,32cases were enrolled and the incidence of RP and plasma TGF-β1level change were carefully studied.The results showed that RP could be significantly inhibited on rats by20g/kg/d Xianyu decoction orally given, including improving general condition, alleviating pathological inflammation and reducing the expression of IL-6protein in lung tissue. It also suggested that Xianyu decoction may prevent RP through regulate cytokines such as IFN-γ, IL-6and IL-10. Xianyu decoction could prohibit CCC-HPF-1and therefore induce apoptosis, which might be one of the mechanisms of how does it inhibit RP. Key Words:Radiation Pneumonitis; Inflammatory; Xianyu Decoction...