Recent advances in deorphanization of GPR35 and its functions in related diseases / 药学学报

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent the largest family of membrane proteins and are the target of approximately half of all therapeutic drugs. There are ～300 orphan GPCRs, which have great potential in drug development. G protein-coupled receptor 35 (GPR35), a rhodopsin-like orphan GPCR, is widely involved in immune regulation, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, as well as other diseases, suggesting its great potential as a therapeutic target in a variety of diseases. However, the current research on GPR35 is insufficient, including the true endogenous ligand has not been confirmed, the molecular mechanism of its role in disease is not fully understood, and there is a lack of effective intervention strategies targeting GPR35. This article summarizes the deorphatization of GPR35, GPR35-related signaling pathways and their association with various diseases, in order to provide a reference for in-depth study of GPR35 in diseases and development of drugs targeting GPR35.

Evaluation of CRISPR-Based Assays for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose@#Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogen of coronavirus disease 2019. Diagnostic methods based on the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) have been developed to detect SARSCoV-2 rapidly. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of CRISPR for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection. @*Materials and Methods@#Studies published before August 2021 were retrieved from four databases, using the keywords “SARS-CoV-2” and “CRISPR.” Data were collected from these publications, and the sensitivity, specificity, negative likelihood ratio (NLR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were calculated. The summary receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted for analysis with MetaDiSc 1.4. The Stata 15.0 software was used to draw Deeks’ funnel plots to evaluate publication bias. @*Results@#We performed a pooled analysis of 38 independent studies shown in 30 publications. The reference standard was reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. The results indicated that the sensitivity of CRISPR-based methods for diagnosis was 0.94 (95% CI 0.93–0.95), the specificity was 0.98 (95% CI 0.97–0.99), the PLR was 34.03 (95% CI 20.81–55.66), the NLR was 0.08 (95% CI 0.06– 0.10), and the DOR was 575.74 (95% CI 382.36–866.95). The area under the curve was 0.9894. @*Conclusion@#Studies indicate that a diagnostic method based on CRISPR has high sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, this would be a potential diagnostic tool to improve the accuracy of SARS-CoV-2 detection.

The role and treatment strategies of ferroptosis in liver diseases / 药学学报

The discovery of regulatory cell death has led to new breakthroughs in the field of disease treatment. As a novel discovered regulatory cell death in the past decade, ferroptosis is characterized by abnormal increase of intracellular iron ions and peroxidative damage of cell membrane lipids, morphological features of mitochondrial volume reduction, increased mitochondrial membrane density, as well as mitochondria decrease or disappear. The mechanism of ferroptosis is mainly associated with factors such as iron metabolism disorder, lipid metabolism abnormality, amino acid antioxidant system imbalance and oxidative stress. Since the liver is the main organ of human body for storing iron ions, it is necessary to deeply investigate the mechanism of ferroptosis in liver diseases. Relevant studies have shown that ferroptosis plays different roles in various liver diseases and is closely related to the process of liver diseases, including drug-induced liver injury, alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases, viral hepatitis, liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this review is to link ferroptosis and liver diseases, concentrating on the iron metabolism disorder, accumulation of lipid peroxides in cell membranes, imbalance of amino acid antioxidant system, hyperpolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential and its accumulation of lipid peroxides, oxidative stress-related transcription factors and other aspects. This review summarizes the regulatory mechanism, current situation and the roles of ferroptosis in liver diseases, in order to provide a new theoretical basis and ideas for the in-depth study of ferroptosis and the treatment of liver diseases.

Investigation on skills of using dust mask in dust-exposed workers of civil metal ship manufacturing enterprises / 中国职业医学

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the skills of using dust mask in the dust-exposed workers in civil metal ship manufacturing enterprises. METHODS: A total of 123 dust-exposed workers in a civil metal ship manufacturing enterprise were selected as the research subjects using convenience sampling method. Dust Mask Using Situation and Maintenance Questionnaire was used to investigate the use of dust masks, and the tightness of using dust mask was measured by the tightness tester. RESULTS: The median, and the 0 th-100 th percentiles[M(P_0-P_(100))] of the dust mask use time in the workers was 3.0(1.0-3.0) months, and the M(P_0-P_(100)) of filter element use time was 1.0(0.5-2.0) workdays. The subjects did not disinfect the masks after use. Only 36.6%(45/123) of workers regularly cleaned dust masks during use. There was 62.6%(77/123) of workers who failed to correctly perform negative pressure air tightness check by themselves. A total of 112 workers carried out tightness test, and the pass rate of those who passed the tightness test for the first time was 62.5%(70/112). The median, and the 25 th and 75 th percentiles [M(P_(25), P_(75))] of fit factor(FF) in the 70 qualified workers was 835.0(503.0, 1 635.0). After retests, the overall tightness test pass rate was 66.1%(74/112), and the M(P_(25), P_(75)) of FF in the 74 qualified workers was 786.0(477.7, 1 532.2). The reasons for failure of tightness test were the mismatch of the mask and face size, wrong wearing methods and long beard. CONCLUSION: Some of the dust-exposed workers in the civil metal ship manufacturing enterprises did not use the dust mask correctly. The dust mask configuration and the use and maintenance training should be strengthened, and the tightness test should be carried out regularly to improve workers′ skills in using dust masks.

Novel SNP markers on ginsenosides biosynthesis functional gene for authentication of ginseng herbs and commercial products / 中国天然药物

Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius have similar bioactive components and morphological characteristics, but they are known to have different medicinal values, high-sensitive and accurate method is expected to identify the sources of ginseng products and evaluate the quality, but with a huge challenge. Our established UHPLC-TOF/MS method coupled with orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model based on 18 ginsenosides was applied to discriminate the sources of raw medicinal materials in ginseng products, and nested PCR strategy was used to discover 6 novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites in functional dammarenediol synthase (DS) gene for genetic authentication of P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius for the first time. OPLS-DA model could identify the sources of raw ginseng materials are real or not. SNP markers were applied to identify ginseng fresh samples as well as commercial products, and proved to be successful. This established molecular method can tell exact source information of adulterants, and it was highly sensitive and specific even when total DNA amount was only 0.1 ng and the adulteration was as low as 1%. Therefore, this study made an attempt at the exploration of new type SNP marker for variety authentication and function regulation at the same time, and the combination of chemical and molecular discrimination methods provided the comprehensive evaluation and authentication for the sources of ginseng herbs and products.

Effect of occlusal thickness design on the fracture resistance of endocrowns restored with lithium disilicate ceramic and zirconia / 华西口腔医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#This study aimed to investigate the effect of occlusal thickness design on fracture resistance of endocrowns restored with lithium disilicate ceramic and zirconia.@*METHODS@#A total of 24 artificial first mandibular molars were randomly divided into four groups with six teeth in each group as follows: group lithium disilicate ceramic-2 mm (lithium disilicate ceramic, with an occlusal thickness of 2 mm and a retainer length of 4 mm); group lithium disilicate ceramic-4 mm (lithium disilicate ceramic, with an occlusal thickness of 4 mm and a retainer length of 2 mm); group zirconia-2 mm (zirconia, with an occlusal thickness of 2 mm and a retainer length of 4 mm); and group zirconia-4 mm (zirconia, with an occlusal thickness of 4 mm and a retainer length of 2 mm). After adhesive cementation (RelyX Ultimate Clicker), all specimens were subjected to thermocycling (10 000 cycles). The specimens were subjected to fracture resistance testing at a 135° angle to the teeth at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm·min⁻¹ in a universal testing machine. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and Tukey's HSD test by SPSS 15.0. The failure modes were classified.@*RESULTS@#The fracture resistances of groups lithium disilicate ceramic-
2 mm, lithium disilicate ceramic-4 mm, zirconia-2 mm, and zirconia-4 mm were (890.54±83.41), (2 320.87±728.57), 
(2 258.05±557.66), and (3 847.70±495.99) N respectively. Group zirconia-4 mm had the highest fracture resistance, whereas group lithium disilicate ceramic-2 mm had the lowest.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The fracture resistance of molar endocrown with zirconia is higher than that with lithium disilicate ceramic. Increasing the occlusal thickness can improve the fracture resistance but increase the risk of fracture of abutment.

Analysis of the function of diaphragm and its influencing factors in mechanical ventilation patients by using fully automatic trigger twitch tracheal pressure / 中华危重病急救医学

Objective:To understand the function of diaphragm and analyze the clinical factors affecting the function of diaphragm by measuring twitch tracheal pressure (TwPtr) in patients with mechanical ventilation and in the weaning phase.Methods:Patients with more than 48 hours of invasive mechanical ventilation admitted to the department of critical care medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from December 2015 to March 2017 were enrolled. After the patient entered the weaning stage, TwPtr of patients was monitored by two-way non repetitive automatic respiratory trigger device, the effects of duration of mechanical ventilation, severe pulmonary infection, sedative application and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on weaning were analyzed.Results:A total of 62 patients were included, of which 45 were male and 17 were female. The average age was (66.8±11.7) years old. Twenty-three cases had severe pneumonia. The absolute value of TwPtr in severe pneumonia group was lower than that in non-severe pneumonia group [cmH 2O (1 cmH 2O = 0.098 kPa): 10.40±5.81 vs. 14.35±5.22, P = 0.021]. However, there was no significant difference in the duration of mechanical ventilation between the severe pneumonia group and non-severe pneumonia group [days: 26 (17, 43) vs. 15 (11, 36), P = 0.091]. In 62 patients with mechanical ventilation, there was a negative correlation between TwPtr and duration of mechanical ventilation ( r = 0.414, P = 0.002), there was also a negative correlation between the duration of mechanical ventilation and TwPtr after the assessment of diaphragm function ( r = 0.277, P = 0.039). There was a linear relationship between TwPtr and sedatives ( r = 0.220, P = 0.040), but there was no correlation between TwPtr and COPD ( r = -0.178, P = 0.166). Conclusions:For patients in the weaning stage of mechanical ventilation, severe pulmonary infection is one of the factors that affect the diaphragm dysfunction. There is a certain correlation between the diaphragm dysfunction and the use of sedatives.

Wound Age Estimation by Neutrophil Migration Distance / 法医学杂志

Objective To explore the application of neutrophil migration distance for wound age estimation of skeletal muscles in rats, and to provide methodological basis for follow-up study in future. Methods The skeletal muscle contusion model was established in rats, and the control group and the 2, 4, 6 h post-traumatic groups were set. The law of response of neutrophils that participated in the inflammation after injury was detected by immunohistochemical staining, and the relationship between neutrophil migration distance and injury time was detected by TissueFAXS PLUS software. Results The skeletal muscle was obviously infiltrated with neutrophils 2-6 h after injury. The positive rate of neutrophil was （28.75±0.94）% at 2 h post-traumatic, and reached the peak （45.50±3.63）% at 4 h post-traumatic, then decreased to （31.92±1.56）% at 6 h post-traumatic. The neutrophil migration distances increased with the progress of inflammation, and reached （124.80±12.32） μm, （229.03±21.45） μm and （335.04±16.75） μm at 2 h, 4 h and 6 h, respectively. Conclusion There is a relationship of neutrophil infiltrated number and migration distance and wound age within the 2-6 h after skeletal muscle injury, which could be used for the inference of skeletal muscle wound age.

Morphological and chemical studies of artificial Andrographis paniculata polyploids / 中国天然药物

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nees (AP) is commonly used for the treatment of many infectious diseases and has been cultivated widely in Asian countries, and has been included in United States Pharmacopoeia as a dietary supplement, but the cultivars of A. paniculata are not abundant due to its self-pollinated. With the aims to enrich AP resources and provide materials for after breeding we explored the polyploidy induction. Different explants, colchicine concentration, and treatment time were tested. After identification by flow cytometry, eleven polyploid plants with different morphologic traits were obtained. The agronomic traits and andrographolide concentration of the polyploids were improved greatly. One of the polyploids (serial 3-7) was chosen for further study. The traits of the second and third generation polyploids (serial 3-7) were stable. Compared with the normal plants, the seeds (2nd generation) weight increased by 31%, and the andrographolide concentration of the leaves increased by 14% (2nd) and 28% (3rd). In conclusion, AP autopolyploids with different morphologic traits were established successfully for the first time, and the polyploids induction might be effective for crop improvement of AP.

Discovery of differential sequences for improving breeding and yield of cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis through ITS sequencing and phylogenetic analysis / 中国天然药物

To accelerate the breeding process of cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis and increase its yield, it is important to identify molecular fingerprint of dominant O. sinensis. In the present study, we collected 3 batches of industrially cultivated O. sinensis product with higher yield than the others and compared their internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences with the wild and the reported. The ITS sequence was obtained by bidirectional sequencing and analyzed with molecular systematics as a DNA barcode for rapid and accurate identification of wild and cultivated O. sinensis collected. The ITS sequences of O. sinensis with detailed collection loci on NCBI were downloaded to construct a phylogenetic tree together with the sequences obtained from the present study by using neighbor-joining method based on their evolution relationship. The information on collection loci was analyzed with ArcGIS 10.2 to demonstrate the geographic distribution of these samples and thus to determine the origin of the dominant samples. The results showed that all wild and cultivated samples were identified as O. sinensis and all sequences were divided into seven phylogenetic groups in the tree. Those groups were precisely distributed on the map and the process of their system evolution was clearly presented. The three cultivated samples were clustered into two dominant groups, showing the correlation between the industrially cultivated samples and the dominant wild samples, which can provide references for its optimized breeding in the future.

Morphological and chemical studies of artificial Andrographis paniculata polyploids / 中国天然药物

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nees (AP) is commonly used for the treatment of many infectious diseases and has been cultivated widely in Asian countries, and has been included in United States Pharmacopoeia as a dietary supplement, but the cultivars of A. paniculata are not abundant due to its self-pollinated. With the aims to enrich AP resources and provide materials for after breeding we explored the polyploidy induction. Different explants, colchicine concentration, and treatment time were tested. After identification by flow cytometry, eleven polyploid plants with different morphologic traits were obtained. The agronomic traits and andrographolide concentration of the polyploids were improved greatly. One of the polyploids (serial 3-7) was chosen for further study. The traits of the second and third generation polyploids (serial 3-7) were stable. Compared with the normal plants, the seeds (2nd generation) weight increased by 31%, and the andrographolide concentration of the leaves increased by 14% (2nd) and 28% (3rd). In conclusion, AP autopolyploids with different morphologic traits were established successfully for the first time, and the polyploids induction might be effective for crop improvement of AP.

Discovery of differential sequences for improving breeding and yield of cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis through ITS sequencing and phylogenetic analysis / 中国天然药物

To accelerate the breeding process of cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis and increase its yield, it is important to identify molecular fingerprint of dominant O. sinensis. In the present study, we collected 3 batches of industrially cultivated O. sinensis product with higher yield than the others and compared their internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences with the wild and the reported. The ITS sequence was obtained by bidirectional sequencing and analyzed with molecular systematics as a DNA barcode for rapid and accurate identification of wild and cultivated O. sinensis collected. The ITS sequences of O. sinensis with detailed collection loci on NCBI were downloaded to construct a phylogenetic tree together with the sequences obtained from the present study by using neighbor-joining method based on their evolution relationship. The information on collection loci was analyzed with ArcGIS 10.2 to demonstrate the geographic distribution of these samples and thus to determine the origin of the dominant samples. The results showed that all wild and cultivated samples were identified as O. sinensis and all sequences were divided into seven phylogenetic groups in the tree. Those groups were precisely distributed on the map and the process of their system evolution was clearly presented. The three cultivated samples were clustered into two dominant groups, showing the correlation between the industrially cultivated samples and the dominant wild samples, which can provide references for its optimized breeding in the future.

Comparison of identification and medicinal progress of Hedyotis diffusa and H. corymbosa / 中草药

Hedyotis diffusa and H. corymbosa belong to the genus Hedyotis Linn. in family Rubiaceae. They shared similar heat-clearing and toxin-resolving effects and pharmacological activities, such as anti-cancer activity, and H. diffusa is frequently adulterated or substituted by H. corymbosa in clinical application. But whether they can completely replace with each other or whether the therapeutic effect could be changed after the substitution, is still a problem needs to be resolved. Therefore, the two herbs were compared in terms of the textual research, medical history, mixed use, commercial medicine status, macro-characters, micro-characteristic, chemical compositions and pharmacologic activities, and found that they shared similar macro-characters and micro-characteristic but were obviously different in chemical composition and pharmacologic activities, and now they could be identified quickly and accurately by molecular identification method. Therefore, we suggest that they should be used as two different medicinal materials at this stage.

Transgenic Expression and Identification of Recombinant Human Proinsulin in Peanut

The increased incidence of diabetes, coupled with the introduction of alternative insulin delivery methods that rely on higher doses, is expected to result in a substantial escalation in the future demand for affordable insulin. Plant-based systems offer a safe and economical method for producing pharmaceutical proteins. We used peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) as bio-reactors to express biosafe, stable proinsulin. We designed two proinsulin analogues (FAIA and LAIA) with substitutions in their amino acid sequences. The fast-acting insulin analogue (FAIA) contains a Gly inserted between Cys19 and Gly20, as well as a Pro28Asp substitution, in the B chain. The long-acting insulin analogue (LAIA) contains a Gly inserted between Cys19 and Gly20 and two Arg residues inserted into the terminus of the B chain, as well as an Asn21Gly substitution in the A chain. Four plasmids were constructed: pROKII-Flag-FAIA, pROKII-Flag-LAIA, pCAMBIA2301-Oleosin-FAIA and pCAMBIA2301-Oleosin-LAIA. These plasmids were transferred into peanut to produce recombinant proinsulin. Western blot and GUS staining analysis indicated that some transgenic peanut successfully expressed exogenous proinsulin. Peanut seeds can act as insulin storage sites, which is the foundation for further production of recombinant proinsulin from peanut seeds.

Progress on the early diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis / 中国骨伤

Knee osteoarthritis is one of the common type of arthropathy, the clinical stage of the typical patients belongs to the middle-late stage, so it urges to improve the early diagnosis. At present, magnetic resonance imaging is most used in clinical diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis, and with the development of different MRI sequences, the sequences of early articular cartilage lesions are used in clinic. In the early diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis, the simple and practical methods such as ultrasonography is becoming a trend, and the specific biomarkers of early knee osteoarthritis have become the hot research. This overview article outlined the methods of early diagnosis from the ultrashort echo time MRI, ultrasonography and biomarkers.

Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of ent-kaurene oxidase synthase gene in Salvia miltiorrhiza / 中国中药杂志

Based on the transcriptome database of Salvia miltiorrhiza, specific primers were designed to clone a full-length cDNA of ent-kaurene oxidase synthase (SmKOL) using the RACE strategy. ORF Finder was used to find the open reading frame of SmKOL cDNA, and ClustalW has been performed to analysis the multiple amino acid sequence alignment. Phylogenetic tree has been constructed using MEGA 5.1. The transcription level of SmKOL from the hairy roots induced by elicitor methyl jasmonate (MeJA) was qualifiedby real-time quantitative PCR. The full length of SmKOL cDNA was of 1 884 bp nucleotides encoding 519 amino acids. The molecular weight of the SmKOL protein was about 58.88 kDa with isoelectric point (pI) of 7.62. Results of real-time quantitative PCR analyses indicated that the level of SmKOL mRNA expression in hairy roots was increased by elicitor oMeJA, and reached maximum in 36 h. The full-length cDNA of SmKOL was cloned from S. miltiorrhiza hairy root, which provides a target gene for further studies of its function, gibberellin biosynthesis and regulation of secondary metabolites.

Cloning and induced expression analysis of 4-hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl diphosphate reductase gene (smHDR) of Salvia miltiorrhiza / 药学学报

This study reported the obtainment of the full-length cDNA of Salvia miltiorrhiza hairy roots (Abbr: SmHDR, GenBank number: JX233817), via extracting Salvia miltiorrhiza hairy roots total RNA, designing specific primers according to the transcriptome data and using the RACE strategy, and then analyzed it with bioinformatics approaches. On this basis, using the real-time PCR to detect SmHDR gene expression after Ag+ induction, and testing tanshinones contents of corresponding samples by UPLC. SmHDR has 1 647 nucleotides, and an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a protein of 463 amino acid residues. The deduced protein has isoelectric point (pI) of 5.72 and a calculated molecular weight about 51.88 kD. In the secondary structure, the percentage of alpha helix, beta turn and random coil were 35.64%, 20.30% and 44.06%, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that SmHDR had relative close relationship to the HDR of Picrorhiza kurrooa, similar to HDR from other species of plants. Real time PCR results indicated that elicitor of Ag+ stimulated the increase of mRNA expression of SmHDR. At the same time, results of ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), used to examine the accumulation of diterpenoid tanshinones in hairy roots, showed that the contents of diterpenoid tanshinones in hairy roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza were increased dramatically at 12 h after treated with Ag+, and then decreased significantly. This result showed a positive correlation between the levels of mRNA expression and tanshinones accumulation in Salvia miltiorrhiza stimulated by Ag+. The content of tanshinones was gradually raised, and it had an obvious increase at 120 h. The bioinformatics analysis and gene expression indicated that SmHDR might be involved in tanshinones biosynthesis, which laid the foundation for further study of secondary metabolic regulation mechanism of tanshinones.

Advances in studies on 3-hydroxy-3-metllylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase in terpenoids biosynthesis of medicinal plants / 中国中药杂志

There exists many kinds and a huge number of terpenoid in medicinal plants, which show a wide range of pharmacological activities. 3-Hydroxy-3-metllylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase(HMGR) is a key rate-limiting enzyme in terpenoid biosynthetic pathway . HMGR plays an important role in the regulation of secondary metabolism of the terpenoid. The paper summarized the biological function and the catalytic mechanism of HMGR, the cloning and the structure of the gene as well as its research progress in some medicinal plants.

Investigation on wild resources of Dendrobium officinale distribution and ecological envirment in Anhui / 中国中药杂志

The wild resources of Dendrobium officinale in Anhui province were studied by textural research, data collection, interview survey and regional survey, in order to investigate the resources distribution and ecological characters and provide the reference for Anhui Dendrobium industry. In this paper, a part of producing areas of wild D. officinale in Anhui province was selected to analyze the ecological characters. As a result, we find that the wild resources of D. officinale in Anhui distributed only sporadic and the conditions of growth environment were harsh. Our findings may provide some suggestions on wild resources protection and artificial cultivation in suitable environments because the wild resources of D. officinale in Anhui are decreasing rapidly and facing an endangered situation.

Dose-response and mechanism of protective functions of selective alpha-2 agonist dexmedetomidine on acute lung injury in rats

To investigate the protective functions of dexmedetomidine on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in the lung tissues of rats. The experiment was conducted from May 2008 to December 2009 in Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai, China. Forty Sprague Dawley rats were randomized into a normal group [NS group], a lipopolysaccharide model group [LPS group], and dexmedetomidine groups in high dosages [HD], moderate dosages [MD], and low dosages [LD]. After the acute lung injury model was duplicated by lipopolysaccharide, the rats in the LD, MD, and HD groups were injected with 0.5 microg/kg, 1.5 microg/kg, and 4.5 microg/kg of dexmedetomidine. The rats in the NS group were injected with normal saline. Immuno-histochemical and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction techniques were used to assess the damage of lung tissue in each group. The nuclear factor-KappaB and Toll-like receptor 4 messenger RNA expression in the lung tissues of the rats in the MD and HD groups were inhibited compared to the LPS group. The amount of tumor necrosis factor-beta, interleukin-1beta, and interleukin-6 as well as the lung tissue wet to dry weight ratio were also reduced in the MD and HD groups. The inflammatory reactions in lung tissues can be effectively inhibited at doses ranging from 1.5-4.5 microg/kg, resulting in a protective effect on lung tissue