Abstract
Background
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning affects several vital organs; however, the long-term damage to lungs has not been well investigated.
Objective
This study investigated the morphological changes and the associated molecules 6 weeks after CO poisoning in rat models. Rats in the CO poisoning group were exposed to 1500 ppm CO in a gas chamber for 3 h. After 6 weeks, the rats in the control and CO poisoning groups were sacrificed. Pathological changes were assessed using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Western blotting and antibody arrays for inflammatory signaling molecules were performed using lung homogenates. Complete blood counts and Krebs Von Den Lungen (KL)-6 levels were compared among rats in the control group and those immediately and 6 weeks after CO poisoning using blood sampling from an indwelling catheter.
Results
CO-poisoned lungs showed emphysematous changes with increased mean linear intercept (p = 0.0007). SERPINA1, IL-13, CD44, and GDF7 levels were significantly decreased, whereas TGFβ, ɑ-SMA, MMP9, and NF-κB levels were significantly increased in the CO-poisoned lungs. KL-6 serum levels were significantly higher in the CO-poisoned rats (p < 0.0001).
Conclusion
This is the first study to demonstrate the long-term effects and emphysematous changes in CO-poisoned lung models. We recommend long-term monitoring following CO poisoning.
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Data availability
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within this article.
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Acknowledgement
We thank Prof. Hyun Kim and Prof. Sang-Ha Kim for supporting this study.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, which is funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology, grant no. NRF-2021R1A2C200492211).
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SJL, JYL, and WYL: contributed to conceptualization; JYL: was responsible for methodology, software, and formal analysis; JYL and MK: were responsible for validation, resources, and data curation; SJL, TK, MK, and JYL: did investigation; SJL and JYL: were involved in visualization and writing—original draft preparation; TK, YSC, MK, and WYL: contributed to writing—review and editing; WYL: was involved in supervision and project administration; YSC: performed funding acquisition. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Seok Jeong Lee declares that she has no conflict of interest. Taeyeong Kim declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yong Sung Cha declares that he has no conflict of interest. Min Kim declares that she has no conflict of interest. Ji Yong Lee declares that she has no conflict of interest. Won-Yeon Lee declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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The animal study protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine (YWC-210308-1, 7-Apr-2022) and conducted according to the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
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Lee, S.J., Kim, T., Cha, Y.S. et al. Alveolar damage and development of emphysema in rats with carbon monoxide poisoning. Mol. Cell. Toxicol. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-023-00405-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-023-00405-7