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N-acetylcysteine pretreatment attenuates paraquat-induced lung leak in rats
B M Hybertson1, A S Lampey1, J H Clarke1
1a Webb-Waring Institute for Biomedical Research and the Department of Medicine , University of Colorado Health Sciences Center , Denver , Colorado and the Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center , University of Ulsan School of Medicine , Seoul , Korea.
Abstract:
We investigated the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) pretreatment on paraquat-induced lung inflammation and leak. We found that administering a single intravenous dose (60 mg/kg) of paraquat rapidly (2 h) increased lung leak, lung lavage cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) levels, and lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in rats. Rats pretreated with NAC (150 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) had increased lung tissue glutathione (GSH + GSSG) levels compared to saline-pretreated rats. In addition, rats pretreated with NAC and then given paraquat 2.5 h later had decreased lung leak compared to saline-pretreated rats given paraquat. In contrast, NAC pretreated rats given paraquat had the same lung lavage CINC levels and lung tissue MPO activity as saline-pretreated rats given paraquat. Our results indicate that paraquat causes an oxidative injury which may be decreased by the GSH-increasing or other properties of NAC.
