An Adaptogen: Withaferin A Ameliorates and Pulmonary Fibrosis by Modulating the Interplay of Fibrotic, Matricelluar Proteins, and Cytokines.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is chronic lung disease with only two FDA approved clinically available drugs, with limited safety profile. Inadequate therapy motivated us to explore the effect of vimentin inhibitor Withaferin A, as an anti-fibrotic agent against TGF-β1-induced fibrotic events and Bleomycin induced fibrosis with an emphasis on epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), extracellular matrix deposition (ECM), inflammation, and angiogenesis. EMT and fibrotic events were induced by TGF-β1 in alveolar epithelial cells and human fetal lung fibroblasts followed by treatment with Withaferin A (0.

Oropharyngeal aspiration of bleomycin: An alternative experimental model of pulmonary fibrosis developed in Swiss mice.

Objective: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a progressive and predominantly lethal form of several interstitial lung diseases with limited current therapeutics; it is, therefore, essential to develop a simple, homogeneous, and noninvasive disease model to investigate possible anti-fibrotic approaches. The present study is designed to develop oropharyngeal aspiration (OPA) model of bleomycin (BLM)-induced PF as a simple and alternative to intratracheal (IT) administration of BLM in Swiss mice strain.

Materials And Methods: Mice were divided into two groups, BLM-treated and normal control.