Hydrogen Therapy Combined with Oxygen Protects Lungs from Injury
- Authors
- Yintao Chang, Qianyu Han, Xiaochen Bao, Mingdong Wang, Yuxiang Jin, Siang Zhang, Xuewei Zhao, Yiqun Fang, Lei Xue
- Journal
- Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine
- Year
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.22462/01.00.2023.42
- Study Type
- Rat
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Acute Lung Injury
- Body System
- Respiratory
TL;DR
A combination of hydrogen-rich saline and hyperbaric oxygen therapy was found to be more effective in treating lung injury in rats than either treatment alone.
Key Finding
Combining hydrogen-rich saline with hyperbaric oxygen produced stronger protective effects against lung injury than either treatment used separately, including greater reductions in inflammation and cell death.
Summary
Researchers tested whether hydrogen-rich saline combined with hyperbaric oxygen (pressurized oxygen therapy) could protect rat lungs from injury caused by a bacterial toxin. Rats treated with both therapies together showed better lung healing, less inflammation, and less cell death compared to rats receiving either treatment alone or no treatment.
Practical Takeaway
This is an early-stage animal study showing that hydrogen-rich saline may work better alongside other therapies rather than alone for lung protection. However, this was tested only in rats with artificially induced lung injury, so it's unclear whether these results would apply to humans or to naturally occurring lung conditions. Much more research would be needed before any clinical use.
Abstract
Background: This study sought to investigate therapeutic effects of hydrogen-rich saline (HRS) combined with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) in an experimental rat model of acute lung injury (ALI). Method: Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham, LPS, LPS + HBO2, LPS + HRS, and LPS + HBO2 + HRS groups. After an intratracheal injection of LPS-induced ALI, the rats were given a single-agent HBO2 or HRS or HBO2 + HRS treatment. The treatments were continued for three days in this experimental rat model of ALI. At the end of experiment, the lung pathological, inflammatory factors, and cell apoptosis in the pulmonary tissue were detected by Tunel method and cell apoptosis rate was calculated accordingly. Results: In the groups treated with HBO2 + HRS, pulmonary pathological data, wet-dry weight ratio, and inflammatory factors of pulmonary tissues and alveolar lavage fluid were significantly superior to those of the sham group (p≺0.05). Cell apoptosis detection revealed that no single agent treatment of HRS or HBO2, or combination treatment, could alleviate all cell apoptosis. HRS combined with HBO2 treatment was superior to single treatment (p≺0.05). Conclusion: HRS or HBO2 single treatment could decrease inflammatory cytokines release in lung tissue, reduce the accumulation of oxidative products and alleviate apoptosis of pulmonary cells, then lead to positive therapeutic effects on ALI induced by LPS. Furthermore, HBO2 combined with HRS treatment presented a synergy effect on cell apoptosis decrease and a decline in inflammatory cytokine release and related inflammatory product generation, compared with a single treatment.