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Preventive and Therapeutic Effects of Thymol in a Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury Mice Model

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Abstract

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life-threatening syndrome which causes a high mortality rate worldwide. In traditional medicine, lots of aromatic plants—such as some Thymus species—are used for treatment of various lung diseases including pertussis, bronchitis, and asthma. Thymol, one of the primary active constituent derived from Thymus vulgaris (thyme), has been reported to exhibit potent anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities in vivo and in vitro. The present study aims to investigate the protective effects of thymol in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung injury mice model. In LPS-challenged mice, treatment with thymol (100 mg/kg) before or after LPS challenge significantly improved pathological changes in lung tissues. Thymol also inhibited the LPS-induced inflammatory cells influx, TNF-α and IL-6 releases, and protein concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Additionally, thymol markedly inhibited LPS-induced elevation of MDA and MPO levels, as well as reduction of SOD activity. Further study demonstrated that thymol effectively inhibited the NF-κB activation in the lung. Taken together, these results suggested that thymol might be useful in the therapy of acute lung injury.

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Funding

This study was partly supported by grants from Education Bureau of Guangzhou (No. 1201581610), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81402992), and the Open Project of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening (2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Limei Wan & Hong Wang

  2. Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Dongmei Meng, Shunjun Jiang, Shanshan Huang, Li Wei & Pengjiu Yu

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China

    Shanhe Wan

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  1. Limei Wan
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Correspondence to Li Wei or Pengjiu Yu.

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All procedures in this study were performed in accordance with the General Recommendation and Provisions of the Chinese Experimental Animals Administration Legislation.

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Wan, L., Meng, D., Wang, H. et al. Preventive and Therapeutic Effects of Thymol in a Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury Mice Model. Inflammation 41, 183–192 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-017-0676-4

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