Blueberry anthocyanins-enriched extracts attenuate the cyclophosphamide-induced lung toxicity

•Blueberry anthocyanins-enriched extracts show benefits on cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced rat lung damage.•Obvious pulmonary pathological improvement.•Decrease in lysosomal proteases, lung permeability and neutrophil infiltrates.•Increase in claudin-4 and zonula occluden-1 protein levels.•Inhibition of oxidative stress and inflammatory response.

The influence of blueberry anthocyanins-enriched extracts (BAE) on cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced lung damage was investigated. BAE (20 and 80 mg/kg/d) were orally dosed to rats 7 d both before and after CTX administration (100 mg/kg, intraperitoneal injection, single dose). The results showed CTX treatment induced obvious pathological pulmonary injury with raised injury score and lung/body weight ratio. In CTX group, the activity of lysosomal proteases, lung permeability and the number of neutrophil infiltrates all elevated. On the other hand, claudin-4 and zonula occluden-1 protein levels decreased. And also changes of oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines parameters together with nuclear factor-κB activation were shown. Improvement of all above-mentioned physiological and biochemical parameters was exhibited in BAE groups, with a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, BAE attenuate the CTX-induced lung toxicity, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory characteristics are involved in the protective mechanism of BAE.