Hyperbaric oxygen combined with hydrogen-rich saline protect against acute lung in rat model

Background: To investigate therapeutic effects of hydrogen-rich saline (HRS) combined with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) in an experimental rat model of acute lung injury (ALI). Methods: 40 Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham, LPS, LPS + HBO2, LPS + HRS and LPS + HBO2 + HRS groups. ALI was induced by an intratracheal injection of LPS, then the rats were respectively given single agent treatment of HBO2 or HRS or HBO2 + HRS treatment. The treatments were continued for three days in an experimental rat model of ALI. At the end of the experiment, the lung pathological, inflammatory factors, and cell apoptosis in the pulmonary tissue were detected by Tunel method and cell apoptosis rate was calculated accordingly. Results: In the groups treated with HBO2 + HRS, pulmonary pathological data, wet-dry weight ratio and inflammatory factors of pulmonary tissues and aveolar lavage fluid were signficantly superiror to those of the sham group (p<0.05). Cell apoptosis detection revealed that no matter single agent treatment of HRS or HBO2, or combination treatment, could all alleviate cell apoptosis, and HRS combined with HBO2 treatment was obviously superior to single treatment (p<0.05). Conclusions: HRS or HBO2 single treatment could decrease inflammatory cytokines release in lung tissue, reduce accumulation of oxidative products and alleviate apoptosis of pulmoanry cells, then lead to positive therapeutic effects on ALI induced by LPS. Furthermore, HBO2 combined with HRS treatment presented a synergy effect on cell apoptosis decrease, and a declined trend in inflammatory cytokines release and related inflammatory products generation, compared with single treatment.