The myosin II inhibitor, blebbistatin, ameliorates pulmonary endothelial barrier dysfunction in acute lung injury induced by LPS via NMMHC IIA/Wnt5a/ß-catenin pathway.

Acute lung injury (ALI) or its most advanced form, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), is a severe inflammatory pulmonary process triggered by varieties of pathophysiological factors, among which endothelial barrier disruption plays a critical role in the progression of ALI/ARDS. As an inhibitor of myosin II, blebbistatin inhibits endothelial barrier damage. This study aimed to investigate the effect of blebbistatin on lung endothelial barrier dysfunction in LPS induced acute lung injury and its potential mechanism. Mice were challenged with LPS (5 mg/kg) by intratracheal instillation for 6 h to disrupt the pulmonary endothelial barrier in the model group. Blebbistatin (5 mg/kg, ip) was administrated 1 h before LPS challenge. The results showed that blebbistatin could significantly attenuate LPS-induced lung injury and pulmonary endothelial barrier dysfunction. And we observed that blebbistatin inhibited the activation of NMMHC IIA/Wnt5a/ß-catenin pathway in pulmonary endothelium after LPS treatment. In murine lung vascular endothelial cells (MLECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), we further confirmed that Blebbistatin (1 µmol/L) markedly ameliorated endothelial barrier dysfunction in MLECs and HUVECs by modulating NMMHC IIA/Wnt5a/ß-catenin pathway. Our data demonstrated that blebbistatin could inhibit the development of pulmonary endothelial barrier dysfunction and ALI via NMMHC IIA/Wnt5a/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Effects of rice straw/wood sawdust addition on the transport/conversion behaviors of heavy metals during the liquefaction of sewage sludge.

Lignocellulosic biomass has been widely introduced into the liquefaction process of sewage sludge (SS) to improve the yield/quality of liquefaction products (bio-oil/biochar). This study explores the effect of adding rice straw (RS) and wood sawdust (WS) on the transport/conversion behaviors of heavy metals (HMs) during the liquefaction of SS. The introduction of lignocellulosic biomass, especially for RS, substantially lowers the total content of HMs in biochar. Most HMs (except Cd) still remain in biochar, although the introduction of RS/WS enhances the transport of HMs into bio-oils. The addition of RS/WS raises the percentage of HMs in active form, but the contents of bioavailable/leachable HMs are not considerably increased and even decreased in some cases, especially when RS is introduced. The overall pollution degree and environmental risk of HMs in biochars are lowered to a certain extent with the addition of RS/WS. Considering that the pollution degree and environmental risk of HMs present in biochars are still at a considerable level, appropriate pollution management measures should be undertaken when using such biochars for agricultural use.