Beneficial effects of ascorbic acid to treat lung fibrosis induced by paraquat.

Paraquat (PQ) is one of the most widely employed herbicides that is used worldwide and it causes severe toxic effects in humans and animals. A PQ exposition can lead to pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and the mechanisms seem to be linked to oxidative stress, although other pathways have been suggested. Antioxidants can be useful as a therapy, although interventions with this kind of system are still controversial.

Vitamin D treatment abrogates the inflammatory response in paraquat-induced lung fibrosis.

A high incidence of intentional or accidental paraquat (PQ) ingestion is related to irreversible lung fibrosis and no effective therapy is currently available. Vitamin D has emerged with promising results as an immunomodulatory molecule when abrogating the inflammatory responses of lung diseases. Therefore, we have investigated the role of vitamin D treatments on PQ-induced lung fibrosis in male C57/BL6 mice.