Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 28, 2016; 22(44): 9784-9793
Published online Nov 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i44.9784
Effects of ω-3 fatty acids on toll-like receptor 4 and nuclear factor-κB p56 in lungs of rats with severe acute pancreatitis
Bin Wang, Xiao-Wei Wu, Mei-Xia Guo, Min-Li Li, Xiao-Bing Xu, Xin-Xin Jin, Xiao-Hua Zhang
Bin Wang, Xiao-Wei Wu, Mei-Xia Guo, Min-Li Li, Xiao-Bing Xu, Xin-Xin Jin, Xiao-Hua Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing 210002, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Wang B designed and performed the research and wrote the paper; Wu XW, Xu XB and Jin XX performed the research; Guo MX and Li ML provided analytic tools; Zhang XH designed the paper.
Supported by Jinling Hospital Research Fund, No. 2013064.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of Jinling Hospital, Nanjing, China.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Jinling Hospital. All operations were performed according to international guidelines concerning the care and treatment of experimental animals.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional unpublished data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Xiao-Hua Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, Jinling Hospital, 305 Zhong Shan Dong Lu, Nanjing 210002, Jiangsu Province, China. wangbin198528@163.com
Telephone: +86-25-80860027 Fax: +86-25-80860127
Received: July 1, 2016
Peer-review started: July 4, 2016
First decision: August 29, 2016
Revised: September 13, 2016
Accepted: October 10, 2016
Article in press: October 10, 2016
Published online: November 28, 2016
Abstract
AIM

To determine the effects of ω-3 fatty acids (ω-3FA) on the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/nuclear factor κB p56 (NF-κBp56) signal pathway in the lungs of rats with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).

METHODS

A total of 56 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group, SAP-saline group, SAP-soybean oil group and SAP-ω-3FA group. SAP was induced by the retrograde infusion of sodium taurocholate into the pancreatic duct. The expression of TLR4 and NF-κBp56 in the lungs was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. The levels of inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the lungs were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS

The expression of TLR4 and NF-κBp56 in lungs and of inflammatory cytokines in serum significantly increased in the SAP group compared with the control group (P < 0.05), but was significantly decreased in the ω-3FA group compared with the soybean oil group at 12 and 24 h (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

During the initial stage of SAP, ω-3FA can efficiently lower the inflammatory response and reduce lung injury by triggering the TLR4/NF-κBp56 signal pathway.

Keywords: Severe acute pancreatitis, ω-3 fatty acids, Lung injury, Toll-like receptor 4, Nuclear factor-κB p56, Cytokine

Core tip: There is no report about the correlation between ω-3 fatty acids and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression in lungs of animals with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). In this study, we investigated the effects of ω-3 fatty acids (ω-3FA) on TLR4 and nuclear factor κB p56 (NF-κBp56) in lungs of rats with SAP and the levels of cytokines in serum to examine the effects of ω-3FA on TLR4 and NF-κBp56 of lungs in rats with SAP.