ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the preventing effects of p-coumaric acid(p-CA) on acute hypoxia-induced pulmonary edema by mice experiments. METHODS: Acute-hypoxia model was established using a normobaric hypoxia chamber in vivo. Salidroside was set as a positive control drug. And the test period was 7 d using a method of intragastric administration. The measurements including pulmonary water content, HE staining, inflammatory factors, anti-oxidative indexes and Na+, K+-ATPase were performed to determine the efficacies and mechanisms of p-CA on preventive against acute hypoxia-induced pulmonary edema. RESULTS: As compared with the normal group, pulmonary water contents increased significantly by 3.56% in the mice treated with acute hypoxia (9.5% O2) for 6 h (control group) (P<0.01), and administration with p-CA (25, 100 mg•kg-1•d-1) for 7 d could significantly reduce this index (P<0.05), which was as effective as the positive group. The action mechanisms of p-CA could be due to its abilities of improving the activity of Na+, K+-ATPase, enhancing antioxidant capacity (SOD↑, CAT↑ and MDA↓) and inhibiting inflammatory factors (IL-1β and IL-6). CONCLUSION: p-CA has greater preventive effects on acute hypoxia-induced pulmonary edema in mice.