Regulatory T Cell Activity in Immunosuppresive Mice Model of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Pneumonia

Pseudomonas aeruginosa（PA） pneumonia is a refractory, even lethal complication in immunosuppressive individuals and immune disturbances may promote the pathological process. We aimed to investigate the regulatory T（Treg） cell activity in an immunosuppressive mice model of PA pneumonia by estimating levels of main transcription factor and the main effector of Treg cells, i.e., Forkhead box protein 3（FOXP3） and interleukine-10（IL-10）. Seventy-two BALB/c mice were divided into four groups randomly： control（A）, PA pneumonia（B）, immunosuppression（C） and immunosuppression with PA pneumonia（D）. Mice were sacrificed at 4, 8 and 24 h after establishing experimental models. The pathological changes of lung tissue were graded, and the FOXP3 m RNA and serum IL-10 levels were detected. Histological analysis of lung tissues showed there were no significantly pathological changes in groups A and C, but significantly pathological changes were found in groups B and D, especially in group D at 8 h（P〈0.05）. The expression levels of FOXP3 m RNA in groups A and C showed no significant changes at the three time points, which were significantly lower than those in groups B and D（P〈0.05）. FOXP3 m RNA levels were lowest at 4 h, and there was significant difference between groups B and D（P〈0.05）. The serum levels of IL-10 in groups A and C were almost normal at the three time points, but decreased significantly in groups B and D（P〈0.05）. The serum levels of IL-10 decreased to the lowest at 8 h, especially in group D（P〈0.05）. The results indicate that PA pneumonia in immunosuppressive individuals worsens rapidly, which may be associated with Treg cells function disturbance. And Treg cells may be promising as adjuvant therapeutics for PA pneumonia in immunosuppressive individuals.

Bioactivity-based UPLC/Q-TOF/MS strategy for screening of anti-inflammatory components from Cimicifugae Rhizoma

In this study,the protective effects of Cimicifugae Rhizoma（CR） was demonstrated in Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced pneumonia mouse model.To identify the anti-inflammatory ingredients,an ultraperformance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry（UPLC/Q-TOF-MS）integrated nuclear factor κB（NF-κB） luciferase reporter assay screening system was carried out.As a result,some caffeic acid derivatives,including caffeic acid,ferulic acid/isoferulic acid,fukinolic acid,and cimicifugic acid ingredients were identified as the potential effective compounds from CR.For testing the anti-inflammatory capacity,caffeic acid was demonstrated to inhibit NF-kB and reduce the levels of IL-6 and IL-8 in TNF-α-treated BEAS-2B cells in a dose-dependent manner.Hence,CR preparations and its cinnamic acid derivatives have the possibility to be developed as a complementary therapy in the treatment of respiratory system infection in clinics.