Indirubin improves antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions in lipopolysaccharide-challenged mice

// Tianjie Qi 1, * , Haitao Li 1, * , Shuai Li 1 1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China * These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-first authors Correspondence to: Shuai Li, email: shuaili322@sina.com Keywords: indirubin, acute lung injury, oxidative stress, inflammation, NF-κB Received: March 22, 2017      Accepted: April 07, 2017      Published: May 02, 2017 ABSTRACT Indirubin, a traditional Chinese medicine formulation from the Muricidae family, has been reported to exhibit abroad anti-cancer and anti-inflammation activities and mediate nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signal. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the protective effects of indirubin on LPS-induced acute lung injury and the potential mechanism in mice. The results showed that LPS treatment caused oxidative stress and inflammation in mice. Indirubin alleviated LPS-caused oxidative stress and inflammation via reducing MDA abundance and IL-1β and TNF-α expressions in mice. Meanwhile, indirubin improved lung NO production and inhibited NF-κB activation caused by LPS exposure. In conclusion, indirubin alleviated LPS-induced acute lung injury via improving antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions, which might be associated with the NO and NF-κB signals.