| First Author | Li C | Year | 2017 |
| Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 5843 |
| PubMed ID | 28725012 | Mgi Jnum | J:252929 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5927133 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-017-06021-5 |
| Citation | Li C, et al. (2017) Phycocyanin attenuates pulmonary fibrosis via the TLR2-MyD88-NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Sci Rep 7(1):5843 |
| abstractText | Our aim was to investigate the effects of phycocyanin (PC) on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis (PF). In this study, C57 BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice and toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 deficient mice were treated with PC for 28 days following BLM exposure. Serum and lung tissues were collected on days 3, 7 and 28. Data shows PC significantly decreased the levels of hydroxyproline (HYP), vimentin, surfactant-associated protein C (SP-C), fibroblast specific protein-1 (S100A4) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) but dramatically increased E-cadherin and podoplanin (PDPN) expression on day 28. Moreover, PC greatly decreased the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) at the earlier time. Reduced expression of key genes in the TLR2 pathway was also detected. Compared with WT mice, TLR2-deficient mice exhibited less injury, and the protective effect of PC was partly diminished in this background. These data indicate the anti-fibrotic effects of PC may be mediated by reducing W/D ratio, MPO, IL-6, TNF-alpha, protecting type I alveolar epithelial cells, inhibiting fibroblast proliferation, attenuating epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) and reducing oxidative stress. The TLR2-MyD88-NF-kappaB pathway plays an important role in PC-mediated reduction in pulmonary fibrosis. |
