The influence of ambroxol on expression of IκBα and TGF-β1 in rats with chronic bronchitis induced by smoking / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the roles of IκBα and TGF-β1 on airway inflammation in rats with chronic bronchitis induced by smoking and study the effects and mechanism of anti-inflammation of pretreatment with ambroxol. Methods Sixty male wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups Normal dosage group, model group, high dosage group and low dosage group. The rats with chronic bronchitis were established by smoking. For high and low dosage group, rats were pretreated respectively with ambroxol group, rats were pretreated with normal saline through peritoneal injection as much as the low dosage group.After 76 days, the histopathologic changes stained in hemotoxylin and eosin (H. E.) of bronchopulmonary tissues were observed under opticalmicroscope, white cell counts and differential analysis were performed in BALF, the expression of IκBα and TGF-β1 were detected by immunohistochemistry. Results The pathological changes of model group were in consistent with that of chronic bronchitis, but the degrees were significantly reduced in high and low dosage groups. Compared with those in normal group, the white cell count and the neutrophilic granulocyte count of BALF in model group were significantly increased and the macrophagocyte count decreased, and the expression of IκBαwas significantly decreased(t =3.24,3.31,3.29,3.48, P ＜0. 05) and the TGF-β1 significantly increased (P ＜0. 05). Compared with those in the model group, the white cell count and the neutrophilic granulocyte count of BALF in high and low dosage group were significantly decreased and the macrophagocyte count increased, the expression of IκBαwas significantly increased (t =2. 86,2. 97,2. 92,3.52,2.42,2. 88,2. 58,3.48, P ＜0. 05) and the TGF-β1 significantly decreased (P ＜0. 05) . Compared with those in low dosage group, the expression of TGF-β1 was decreased and the expression of IκBαincreased in high dosage group (t =2. 82,3.64, P ＜0. 05). Conclusions Down-regulating the expression of IκBα and up-regulating of TGF-β1 may be involved in the process of airway inflammation in rats with chronic bronchitis induced by smoking. Ambroxol might have better effects on ameliorating airway inflammation by up-regulating the expression of IκBα and down-regulating of TGF-β1.