Protective effects of fenofibrate against acute lung injury induced by intestinal ischemia/reperfusion in mice

Zhu, Qiankun; He, Guizhen; Wang, Jie; Wang, Yukang; Chen, Wei

I/R led to severe intestine damage characterized by extensive edema, inflammation and necrosis with vascular congestion at the macroscopic appearance compared with that of the sham group. Administration of fenofibrate one hour before the ischemia attenuated the severity of intestinal injury with an ameliorated sign of ischemic darkness and necrosis, although the intestine still had the appearance of moderate edema. (Fig. 1A ). In the histopathological examinations of the intestinal walls, the denudation of villi accompanied by severe injury was observed in the gut tissue in the vehicle group compared with the sham group (Fig. 1B) . Meanwhile, in the fenofibrate-treated group, the integrity of the intestinal structure and the height of the villi were to some extent protected from the I/R injury in comparison with the vehicle groups (Fig. 1B) . Pathological score of the intestine by HE staining indicated that in the fenofibrate-treated group the histological injury score of the intestine was significantly decreased compared with the vehicle group, suggesting the protective effect of fenofibrate in the intestinal I/R injury (Fig. 1C) . The inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α , IL-1β , IL-6, and HMGB-1 of the small intestine were significantly reduced in the fenofibrate group compared with the vehicle group (Fig. 2) . In terms of the apoptosis indicators, the fenofibrate treated mice were presented with significantly lesser expression level of NF-κ B p65 in the small intestine compared with the vehicle treated mice after intestinal I/R. Moreover, Iκ Bα expression in the small intestine of the mice was significantly elevated in the fenofibrate group in comparison with the vehicle group (Fig. 2) .