Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan 27:37:e20250250.
doi: 10.62675/2965-2774.20250250. eCollection 2025.

Lycopene supplementation reduces inflammatory, histopathological and DNA damage in an acute lung injury rabbit model

José Roberto Fioretto  1 , Susiane Oliveira Klefens  1 , Mário Ferreira Carpi  1 , Marcos Aurélio Moraes  1 , Rossano César Bonatto  1 , Ana Lúcia Anjos Ferreira  1 , Camila Renata Corrêa  1 , Cilmery Suemi Kurokawa  1 , Carlos Fernando Ronchi  2
Affiliations

Lycopene supplementation reduces inflammatory, histopathological and DNA damage in an acute lung injury rabbit model

José Roberto Fioretto et al. Crit Care Sci. .

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effects of lycopene supplementation on inflammation, lung histopathology and systemic DNA damage in an experimentally induced lung injury model, ventilated by conventional mechanical ventilation and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, compared with a control group.

Methods: Fifty-five rabbits sampled by convenience were supplemented with 10mg/kg lycopene for 21 days prior to the experiment. Lung injury was induced by tracheal infusion of warm saline. The rabbits were randomly assigned to the control group and subjected to protective conventional mechanical ventilation (n = 5) without supplementation or the experimental group that was subjected to acute lung injury and provided conventional mechanical ventilation and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation with and without lycopene supplementation (n = 10 rabbits in each group). Lung oxidative stress and the inflammatory response were assessed based on the number of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, DNA damage and pulmonary histological damage.

Results: A significant worsening of oxygenation and a decrease in static lung compliance was noted in all groups after pulmonary injury induction (partial pressure of oxygen before 451.86 ± 68.54 and after 71 ± 19.27, p < 0.05). After 4 hours, the high-frequency oscillatory ventilation groups with and without lycopene supplementation as well as the group receiving protective conventional mechanical ventilation with lycopene supplementation showed significant oxygenation improvement compared with the protective conventional mechanical ventilation group without supplementation (partial pressure of oxygen of the group with mechanical ventilation without lycopene of 102 ± 42, of the group that received conventional protective mechanical ventilation with lycopene supplementation of 362 ± 38, of the high-frequency group without lycopene supplementation of 420 ± 28 and of the high-frequency group with lycopene supplementation of 422 ± 25; p < 0.05). Compared with rabbits not receiving supplementation, those in the groups that received protective conventional mechanical ventilation with lycopene supplementation and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation with lycopene supplementation had significantly less inflammation as well as less histological injury (p < 0.05). Compared with rabbits subjected to protective conventional mechanical ventilation, significantly lower DNA damage was observed in rabbits supplemented with lycopene (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Lycopene supplementation reduces inflammatory and histopathological lung injuries, regardless of the associated ventilatory mode. In addition, lycopene improved oxygenation and reduced DNA damage when protective conventional mechanical ventilation was used.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Experimental protocol.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Time course of the PaO2/FiO2 ratio during the 4-hour experimental period.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Polymorphonuclear leukocyte cells recovered from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.
Figure 4A
Figure 4A. Histopathological injury score in lung tissue.
Figure 4B
Figure 4B. Optical microscopy digital photomicrographs (200x, hematoxylin and eosin) of representative samples of lung-dependent areas.
Figure 5
Figure 5. DNA damage in lymphocytes, evaluated by the percentage of DNA in the tail (comet test - tail intensity).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Matthay MA, Zemans RL, Zimmerman GA, Arabi YM, Beitler JR, Mercat A, et al. Acute respiratory distress syndrome. 18Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2019;5(1) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dahlem P, van Aalderen WM, Bos AP. Pediatric acute lung injury. Paediatr Respir Rev. 2007;8(4):348–362. - PubMed
    1. Amato MB, Barbas CS, Medeiros DM, Magaldi RB, Schettino GP, Lorenzi-Filho G, et al. Effect of a protective-ventilation strategy on mortality in the acute respiratory distress syndrome. N Engl J Med. 1998;338(6):347–354. - PubMed
    1. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network. Brower RG, Matthay MA, Morris A, Schoenfeld D, Thompson BT, Wheeler A. Ventilation with lower tidal volumes as compared with traditional tidal volumes for acute lung injury and the acute respiratory distress syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2000;342(18):1301–1308. - PubMed
    1. Imai Y, Nakagawa S, Ito Y, Kawano T, Slutsky AS, Miyasaka K. Comparison of lung protection strategies using conventional and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation. J Appl Physiol. 2001;91(4):1836–1844. - PubMed

MeSH terms