Effect of ulinastain on expression of aquaporins 1 and 5 in mice with acute lung injury

Objective To study the effect of ulinastain（UTI） on acute lung injury（ALI） by studying the expression of aquaporin 1（AQP1） and aquaporin 5（AQP5） in lung tissue of rats. Methods Thirty-two Kunming mice were randomly divided into control group,ALI group,UTI group and dexamathasone（Dex） group.Their lung wet/dry（W/D） mass ratio was assayed,inflammatory change was observed with HE staining,and expressions of AQP1mRNA,AQP5 mRNA,TNF-αmRNA and IL-1βmRNA were detected by RT-PCR after 6h. Results The inflammation and congestion in lung tissue were significantly improved after treatment with UTI and Dex.The expression level of AQP1mRNA was significantly lower in ALI group than in control group（P＜0.05）,and significantly higher in UTI and Dex groups than in ALI group（P＜0.05）.The expression level of TNF-αmRNA was significantly lower in UTI and Dex groups than in ALI group（P＜0.05）.No significant difference was observed in expression of IL-1βmRNA and TNF-αmRNA. Conclusion UTI can improve pulmonary edema during lung injury by up-regulating the expression of AQP1 and AQP5 and down-regulating the expression of TNF-αand IL-1β.