Clearance of insoluble depleted uranium particles in lungs by citric acid and ambroxol / 军事医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of citric acid and ambroxol on clearing insoluble particles of depleted uranium in rat lungs by establishing a tracheal perfusion model.Methods One hundred and fifty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into model exposure group, normal control group(NC group), depleted uranium exposure group(DU), citric acid treatment group( CA) , ambroxol treatment group( AM) and citric acid+ambroxol treatment group( CA+AM) . The rats were sacrificed on 7, 15 and 30 days.Uranium content in the lungs was detected by microwave digestion method, pathological changes in the lungs were observed, and inflammatory factors of lung homogenates were detected.Results Compared to DU control group, the intrapulmonary uranium deposit amount in experimental groups was significantly reduced on 7 and 15 days (P<0.05).HE stained lung tissue showed that the pathological changes in treatment groups were less significant than in DU control group.The level of IL-1α,IL-1β,and IL-2 was significantly lower than in DU control, but the level of MCP-1 and MIP-1 was observably higher.Conclusion Citric acid and ambroxol can evidently improve the clear-ance of lung uranium and reduce damnification of lung tissues.Drug treatment can reduce the level of pulmonary inflamma-tory cytokines alleviate the chronic inflammation in the lungs, and enhance the capacity of macrophage to recruitment.