Hydrogen Water Prevents Lung Damage from Smoking in Mice Study
- Authors
- Yohei Suzuki, Tadashi Sato, Masataka Sugimoto, Hario Baskoro, Keiko Karasutani, Aki Mitsui, Fariz Nurwidya, Naoko Arano, Yuzo Kodama, Shin-ichi Hirano, Akihito Ishigami, Kuniaki Seyama, Kazuhisa Takahashi
- Journal
- Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
- Year
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.08.035
- Study Type
- Mouse
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Body System
- Respiratory
TL;DR
Drinking water enriched with molecular hydrogen (H2) reduced lung damage in mice exposed to cigarette smoke, suggesting a new potential treatment for lung diseases like COPD.
Key Finding
Hydrogen-rich water significantly reduced cigarette smoke-induced lung damage and restored lung function in mice, while also decreasing markers of cellular damage and aging in lung tissue.
Summary
Researchers exposed genetically modified mice to cigarette smoke and gave some of them hydrogen-rich water to drink. The mice that received hydrogen-rich water had less lung damage, better lung function, and lower levels of cellular damage markers compared to mice that only received regular water. This suggests hydrogen may help protect lungs from cigarette smoke injury by reducing oxidative stress (a type of cellular damage).
Practical Takeaway
This is early evidence from a mouse study suggesting hydrogen water may help protect against cigarette smoke damage to the lungs. However, this was tested only in genetically modified mice, not in humans or smokers, so it's unclear whether these results would apply to people. Much more research, including human studies, would be needed before any health recommendations could be made.
Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is predominantly a cigarette smoke (CS)-triggered disease with features of chronic systemic inflammation. Oxidants derived from CS can induce DNA damage and stress-induced premature cellular senescence in the respiratory system, which play significant roles in COPD. Therefore, antioxidants should provide benefits for the treatment of COPD; however, their therapeutic potential remains limited owing to the complexity of this disease. Recently, molecular hydrogen (H2) has been reported as a preventive and therapeutic antioxidant. Molecular H2 can selectively reduce hydroxyl radical accumulation with no known side effects, showing potential applications in managing oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and lipid metabolism. However, there have been no reports on the efficacy of molecular H2 in COPD patients. In the present study, we used a mouse model of COPD to investigate whether CS-induced histological damage in the lungs could be attenuated by administration of molecular H2. We administered H2-rich pure water to senescence marker protein 30 knockout (SMP30-KO) mice exposed to CS for 8 weeks. Administration of H2-rich water attenuated the CS-induced lung damage in the SMP30-KO mice and reduced the mean linear intercept and destructive index of the lungs. Moreover, H2-rich water significantly restored the static lung compliance in the CS-exposed mice compared with that in the CS-exposed H2-untreated mice. Moreover, treatment with H2-rich water decreased the levels of oxidative DNA damage markers such as phosphorylated histone H2AX and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, and senescence markers such as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1, and β-galactosidase in the CS-exposed mice. These results demonstrated that H2-rich pure water attenuated CS-induced emphysema in SMP30-KO mice by reducing CS-induced oxidative DNA damage and premature cell senescence in the lungs. Our study suggests that administration of molecular H2 may be a novel preventive and therapeutic strategy for COPD.