Soybean
polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) is thought to exert anti-inflammatory activities and has potent effects in attenuating
acute renal failure and
liver dysfunction. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of PC in protecting multiple organ injury (MOI) from
lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Six groups of rats (N=8) were used in this study. Three groups acted as controls and received only saline,
hydrocortisone (HC, 6 mg/kg, i.v.) or PC (600 mg/kg, i.p.) without LPS (15 mg/kg, i.p.)
injections. Other 3 groups, as the test groups, were administered saline, HC or PC in the presence of LPS. Six hours after the LPS injection, blood and organs (lung, liver and kidney) were collected from each group to measure inflammatory
cytokines and perform histopathology and
myeloperoxidase (MPO) assessment. Serum
cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10) and MPO activities were significantly increased, and significant histopathological changes in the organs were observed by LPS challenge. These findings were significantly attenuated by PC or HC. The treatment with PC or HC resulted in a significant attenuation on the increase in serum levels of TNF-α and
IL-6, pro-inflammatory
cytokines, while neither PC nor HC significantly attenuated serum levels of
IL-10, anti-inflammatory
cytokine. In the organs, the enhanced infiltration of neutrophils and expression of ED2 positive macrophage were attenuated by PC or HC. Inductions of MPO activity were also significantly attenuated by PC or HC. From the findings, we suggest that PC may be a functional material for its use as an
anti-inflammatory agent.