Effect of alveolar type II cells in acute lung injury model

Introduction: Acute lung injury (ALI) is a clinical manifestation of respiratory failure caused by a response of the lung against local or systemic injury. The damage to the alveolar barrier is a critical event in the early stage of ALI that could be repaired by alveolar type II cells (ATII). In previous studies with transplantation of ATII in ALI we obtained promising results now we want to study them in depth. Objective: Determine the role of ATII cells in the pro and anti-inflammatory pathways in ALI. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats (225-250g) were anesthetized with isoflurane. The lesion was induced by intratracheal instillation of HCl (0.1 mol/L), followed by instillation of LPS of Escherichia coli O55:B5 (30μg/g body weight) 2h later. Control rats were treated with saline. 9h after the second instillation, a group were transplanted intratracheally with ATII cells (2.5x10 6 cells). Data are expressed as mean±SEM. Statistical analysis was performed with One-Way-ANOVA and Newman Keuls post-hoc. Statistical significance p Results: The instillation of HCl+LPS caused an increase in lung weight, which was significantly reduced by transplantation (C:1.3±0.2g; HCL+LPS:1.8±0.2; TRP:0.15g±1.5),(p