【Animal modeling】-Experimental study on puerarin alleviating radiation-induced acute intestinal mucosal injury in rats

  Objective To study the protective effect of puerarin on the intestinal mucosal injury of SD rats induced by radiation and its molecular mechanism.

  Methods SD rats were randomly divided into control group, radiation-only group and irradiation+puerarin group, with 8 rats in each group. The rats in the radiation-only group and the irradiation+puerarin group received a single dose of 12 Gy of irradiation, and the rats in the irradiation+puerarin group were injected with 15 mg/(kg·d) puerarin through the tail vein for 7 consecutive days. The jejunum tissue was collected, and the intestinal pathological changes were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining; the antigen Ki-67 (Ki-67 antigen, Ki-67) in the jejunum tissue was detected by immunohistochemical staining ) and platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM1) expression and distribution; Western blotting was used to detect claudin-1 (Claudin-1) and zonule occlusive protein-1 ( The expression of zonula occludens protein 1, ZO-1); the level of malonyldialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in jejunum tissue were detected by kit method.

  Results The pathological test results showed that puerarin could increase the villus length, maintain the villous epithelial structure and reduce the loss of villous epithelial cells, reduce the loss of crypts and promote the regeneration of crypt cells, and reduce the goblet in crypts under irradiation conditions. density of cells. Puerarin could significantly restore the radiation-induced decrease in Claudin-1 and ZO-1 protein expression in jejunum tissue and attenuate oxidative stress injury.

  Conclusion Puerarin can protect rats from radiation-induced intestinal injury by promoting tight junction protein expression, reducing oxidative stress injury, promoting crypt cell regeneration and maintaining the structural integrity of intestinal villus epithelium.