Erythromycin ameliorates cigarette-smoke-induced emphysema and inflammation in rats.

The exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) is associated with emphysema. In addition to chronic lung inflammation, emphysema is known mainly for the complex pathogenesis associated with imbalance of proteolytic and antiproteolytic activities, oxidative stress, and apoptosis of lung structural cells. Increasing evidence shows that erythromycin, which is a macrolide antibiotic, ameliorates chronic inflammation via mechanisms independent of its antibacterial activity. We hypothesize that erythromycin protects against CS-induced emphysema and inflammation in rats via its anti-inflammation and antiapoptosis action. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were administered lipopolysaccharide (LPS) intratracheally solution twice and exposed to the CS, the control rats were administered saline intratracheally and exposed to ambient air for 3 weeks. Then, all the CS rats were distributed randomly into 3 groups and, respectively, treated orally with saline (LPS + CS + saline), Guilongkechuanning capsule (450 mg/kg) (LPS + CS + GLKCN), or erythromycin (100 mg/kg) (LPS + CS + ERY) 0.5 h before CS exposure for 2 weeks. On day 36, the rats were killed. The cytokines in serum were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The middle lobe of the right lung was removed for histology and apoptosis analyses, respectively. Emphysematous lesions and inflammatory cell infiltrations in the CS group were evident by a histologic analysis. Erythromycin protected significantly against the alveolar enlargement levels (P = 0.0017), reduced the pathologic apoptosis (P = 0.0023) related with Bcl-2 (P = 0.0002) and Bax (P = 0.0002), and inhibited the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 (P = 0.0019) and TIMP-1 protein (P = 0.04) and the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio (P = 0.0002) in the lungs of CS-induced emphysema in rats. The protective effect of erythromycin on CS-induced emphysema and inflammation in rats is associated with a reduction in inflammation, imbalance of MMP-9/TIMP-1, and apoptosis of lung structural cells. However, erythromycin did not recover completely the emphysematous morphologic changes to the levels when compared with control rats. This distinctive pattern implies that erythromycin might have the potential to suppress airway inflammation and maintain the integrity of airway epithelium to some extent.