Protective effects of the compatibility of Herba schizonepetae and Radix saposhnikoviae on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice.

[Objective]To observe the protective effects of volatile oil,water decoction containing oil,water decoction without oil extractives from the compatibility of Herba schizonepetae and Radix saposhnikoviae on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice,and reveal the anti-inflammatory effects and material base of this medicine pair. [Methods] The ALI model was prepared by injecting 5 mg /kg of lipopolysaccharide（LPS） into the enterocoelia of mice. Mice in dexamethasone group were injected once into enterocoelia（5 mg /kg）,while in the rest groups gavage administration on mice was continued for 5 days and once each day,and modeling was done 30 min after the last time of administration（except the blank group）. After LPS was injected for 6 h,blood was taken from mice and the serum was isolated,bronchoalveolar lavage fluid（BALF） was collected and the lung tissue was drawn out. The following items were measured: white blood cell count and differential count; total protein content in mice BALF; lung index,lung wet /dry（W /D） weight ratio; myeloperoxidase（MPO） activity and malonaldehyde（MDA） content of lung tissue; the level of serum interlukin 6（IL-6）,interlukin 10（IL-10） and tumor necrosis factor α（TNF-α）. [Results]Via the use of volatile oil（45. 19 μL/kg） and water decoction containing oil（6. 67 g/kg,containing 20 μL oil） from the compatibility of Herba schizonepetae and Radix saposhnikoviae,whole blood white blood cell（WBC） and lymphocyte（LY） counts in ALI mice were significantly reduced,lung index,lung W /D weight ratio,lung tissue MPO activity and MDA content were decreased,and the increase of serum IL-10 and TNF-α content was restrained; via the water decoction without oil（6. 67 g /kg）,whole blood WBC and LY counts,lung W /D ratio and lung tissue MDA content were significantly reduced. Serum IL-6 level was also significantly decreased by volatile oil. [Conclusions]Volatile oil and water decoction containing oil extracted from the compatibility of Herba schizonepetae and Radix saposhnikoviae can exert good oppositional effects on the lung tissue inflammatory lesion of ALI mice. It manifests anti-inflammatory effects,and the action mechanism is related to inhibiting the release of inflammatory cytokines and antioxidation. Volatile oil can be regarded as one of the important material bases for it to exert anti-inflammatory effects.