Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease without effective clinical drug treatment. Qing-Xuan Granule (QX) as a traditional Chinese patent medicine is clinically used to cure children's cough. This study was designed to investigate the effects of QX and possible molecular mechanisms for bleomycin-induced PF. The work used Western blotting and Q-PCR to explore the vitro and vivo mechanisms of QX treatment, while using HPLC-TOF/MS to explore the composition of QX. QX was given daily orally for two weeks after bleomycin intratracheal instillation. The protective effects of QX on lung function, inflammation, growth factors, hydroxyproline content and deposition of extracellular matrix were investigated. QX decreased expression of Col I and α-SMA in lung tissues by down-regulating TGF-β1-Smad2/3 signaling and suppressed epithelial-mesenchymal transition and effectively reversed abnormal mRNA levels of MMP-1and TIMP-1 as well as LOXL-2 in lung tissues. HPLC-TOF/MS indicate that six substances could be the main active components, which were reported to protect against experimental lung disease.
Keywords: Qing-Xuan granule; TGF-β/Smad; epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); pulmonary fibrosis.
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