• Fanghong Mou and Canglang Mou.
• Department of Respiration, The People's Hospital of Kaizhou District, Chongqing, China (mainland).
• Med. Sci. Monit. 2020 Feb 5; 26: e919739.

AbstractBACKGROUND Interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is harmful for patients' life and health. The effective treatment of IPF is lacking because of unclear pathogenesis. Necrostatin-1 has protective effects on lung injury and can suppress the fibrosis development. I this study we investigated whether necrostatin-1 could decrease the proliferation of pulmonary fibroblasts, pulmonary fibrosis and expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) in IPF. MATERIAL AND METHODS The IPF mice model was conducted by intra-tracheal injection of bleomycin (BLM) (2 mg/kg) for C57BL/6N mice. Necrostatin-1 treatment was performed with 1 mg/kg necrostatin-1 by an intravenous injection for C57BL/6N mice. Lung tissue structures and collagen deposition were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining and Masson staining. IPF in vitro model was constructed by MRC-5 cells induced by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-ß1). And, 20 μM necrostatin-1 was used to treat the TGF-ß1 induced MRC-5 cells. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay detected the viability of MRC-5 cells. The expression of receptor-interacting protein kinase-1 and -3 (RIPK1 and RIPK3), alpha smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), collagen IV, collagen I, fibronectin (FN), and transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) in lung tissues and MRC-5 cells was measured by western blot analysis. The alpha-SMA expression in lung tissues was also analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS The expression of RIPK1 and RIPK3 in lung tissues of BLM induced mice was increased. The degree of pulmonary fibrosis and expression of alpha-SMA, collagen IV, collagen I, FN, and TGF-ß in lung tissues of BLM induced mice was enhanced. The proliferation of MRC-5 cells was increased when MRC-5 cells were induced by TGF-ß. The expression of RIPK1, RIPK3, alpha-SMA, collagen IV, collagen I, and FN was increased in TGF-ß induced MRC-5 cells. And, necrostatin-1 could effectively reverse the changes of pulmonary fibrosis, RIPK1, RIPK3, and ECM in vivo and in vitro experiments. CONCLUSIONS Necrostatin-1 attenuated pulmonary fibrosis in lung tissues of BLM induced mice and inhibited the fibroblast proliferation. And, necrostatin-1 also decreased the expression of RIPK1, RIPK3, and ECM in lung tissues of BLM induced mice and TGF-ß induced fibroblasts. Necrostatin-1 could be a new effective drug for the treatment of IPF.

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