To observe the preventive and therapeutic effects of tanshinone IIA (TIIA) and matrine (MAT) in the prevention and treatment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice, and to preliminarily explore its mechanism.

Sixty male C57 mice were randomly divided into five groups: control group, LPS group, TIIA+ LPS group (TIIA group), MAT+ LPS group (MAT group), TIIA+ MAT+ LPS group (TIIA+ MAT group), with 12 animals in each group. Among them, TIIA group was given TIIA 10 mg/kg dose of gavage, MAT group was given MAT 40 mg/kg gavage, TIIA + MAT group was given TIIA 10 mg/kg + MAT 40 mg/kg gavage for a total of three days, and the control group and LPS group were treated with the same volume of sterile normal saline for the same time. 1 h after the last dose, except for the control group, all groups were given LPS 5 mg/kg intraperitoneal injection for acute lung injury modeling, and the control group was injected with the same volume of sterile normal saline. After 6 hours of molding, lung tissue was taken and HE staining was used to observe the morphological changes of lung tissue, the wet/dry weight ratio (W/D) was determined, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was determined by ELISA method, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and protein content in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) in lung tissue homogenate was determined by kit method.

Morphological observations showed that the lung tissue in the LPS group was significantly hyperemic and edematous, and there was a large number of inflammatory cell infiltrates, while the lung damage caused by endotoxin in the TIIA, MAT group and TIIA+ MAT group was reduced, especially in the TIIA+ MAT group, and the lung W/D ratio was reduced (P<0.05). When TIIA or MAT was applied alone, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α in alveolar lavage solution decreased to varying degrees, but there was no significant significance (P>0.05), and the concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1 and IL-6 in alveolar lavage solution in the TIIA+ MAT group decreased significantly compared with the corresponding phase points of LPS (P<0.05). The protein concentration in the LPS group in BALF was significantly higher than that in the control group, and decreased to varying degrees after TIIA or MAT (P<0.05), but the protein concentration in the TIIA+ MAT group was significantly lower than that in the LPS group (P<0.01). The MPO viability LPS group of lung tissue homogenate was significantly higher than that of the control group, and there was a slight decrease in TIIA or MAT alone, but there was no significant (P>0.05), while the TIIA+ MAT group was significantly lower than that in the LPS group. Statistically significant (P<0.05).

Tanshinone IIA and matrine can reduce acute lung injury caused by LPS, but the combination effect of the two is better than that of single agent.