Grape seed and skin extract protects against bleomycin-induced oxidative stress in rat lung

IntroductionLung fibrosis is a common side effect of the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin and current evidence suggests that reactive oxygen species play a key role in the development of lung injury. We examined whether grape seed and skin extract (GSSE), a polyphenolic mixture exhibiting antioxidant properties, is able to protect against bleomycin-induced lung oxidative stress and injury.MethodsRats were pre-treated during three weeks either with vehicle (ethanol 10% control) or GSSE (4 g/kg), then administered with a single high dose bleomycin (15 mg/kg) at the 7th day.ResultsBleomycin increased lung lipoperoxidation, carbonylation and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Bleomycin also induced copper depletion from the lung and iron accumulation within the lung, but had no effect on either zinc nor manganese. Correlatively bleomycin decreased the copper associated enzyme tyrosinase, increased the zinc dependent lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and did not affect the manganese dependent glutamine synthetase. GSSE efficiently counteracted almost all bleomycin-induced oxidative stress, biochemical and morphological changes of lung tissue.ConclusionData suggest that GSSE exerts potent antioxidant properties that could find potential application in the protection against bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis.