To investigate the effect of acid fibroblast growth factor(aFGF) on lipopolysaccharides-induced acute lung injury in rat.

Sixty male SD rats were divided into three groups according to the random number table: negative control group, lipopolysaccharide injury group and aFGF intervention group, with 20 rats in each group. Acute lung injury model of rats was prepared using lipopolysaccharide 5 mg·kg^-1 via endotracheal intubation, and aFGF intervention group received aFGF 1 000 μ·g^-1 via airway after 24 hours of lipopolysaccharide administration. Three groups are in 48 h after hematoxylin eosin staining to observe the lung tissue pathology change, lung injury score calculation, the determination of lung water clearance, weighing lung wet/dry weight ratio(W/D), immunohistochemical staining to observe the alveolar surface activated protein C (SP-C) expression of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method determination of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in alveolar lavage levels. The protein expression level of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-p38MAPK) in lung tissue was detected by protein imprinting. The data were analyzed by single factor anova (LSD method for further pairwise comparison) or non-parametric test.

(1) Among the lung injury scores, both the aFGF intervention group [(6.33±0.42) points] and the lipopolysaccharide injury group [(11.00±0.37) points] were increased compared with the negative control group [(1.01±0.26) points], but the lung injury score of the aFGF intervention group was significantly lower than the lipopolysaccharide injury group, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). (2) In terms of lung water clearance rate, the level of AFC in aFGF group [(27.41±1.05)%] and the lipopolysaccharide injury group [(15.59±0.64)%] were decreased compared with the negative control group [(30.63±0.91)%], but the aFGF group was significantly higher than the lipopolysaccharide injury group, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). (3) W/D in the lipopolysaccharide injury group (6.32 ±0.32) was significantly higher than the negative control group (4.17±0.05), and the aFGF group (5.18 ±0.10) was also higher than the control group, but W/D was improved and the difference was statistically significant compared with the lipopolysaccharide injury group (P<0.05). (4) The level of TNF-α in aFGF group [(762.50±23.93) pg/mL] and lipopolysaccharide injury group [(1460.01±17.96) pg/mL] were significantly increased compared with the control group [(49.51 ±10.75) pg/mL], but the aFGF group was significantly decreased compared with the lipopolysaccharide injury group, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). (5) In terms of p-p38 MAPK expression, the p-p38 MAPK/ cycle-actin ratio of aFGF intervention group(0.38±0.01) was significantly higher than that of the negative control group (0.18±0.01), the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) and significantly higher than that of the lipopolysaccharide injury group (0.12±0.01) (P<0.01).

Acid fibroblast growth factor plays an important role in acute lung injury treatment. It can decrease the apoptosis of injured lung cells, increase the AFC, improve the ability of lungs to clear fluid, which is of clinical significance.