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Mediators of Inflammation
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 72361, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2007/72361
Research Article

Protecting Effects of Dexamethasone on Thymus of Rats with Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Zhang Xiping,1 Chen Li,2 Lin Miao,3 and Tian Hua2

1Department of General Surgery, Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310006, China
2Department of General Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital Medical College, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310003, China
3Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medical, Hangzhou 310053, Zhejiang Province, China

Received 4 September 2007; Accepted 5 November 2007

Copyright © 2007 Zhang Xiping et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose. To study the protecting effects of dexamethasone on thymus of rats with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods. The SAP rats were randomly assigned to the model group and dexamethasone-treated group, the other normal healthy rats were assigned to the sham operation group. The rat survival, thymus pathological changes, apoptotic index, as well as expression levels of NF-κB, P-selectin, Bax, Bcl-2, and Caspase-3 protein of all groups were observed, respectively, at 3 hours, 6 hours, and 12 hours. The contents of amylase and endotoxin in plasma as well as the contents of TNF-α, PLA2, and NO in serum were determined. Results. There was no marked difference between the model group and treated group in survival. The contents of different indexes in blood of treated group were lower than those of the model group to various degrees at different time points. The thymus pathological score was lower in treated group than in model group at 12 hours.The treated group in Caspase-3 protein expression of thymus significantly exceeded the model group at 12 hours. The apoptotic index was significantly higher in treated group than in model group. Conclusion. Dexamethasone has protecting effects on thymus of SAP rats.