To study the effect of Shenfu injection (SFI) on alveolar cell injury caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and to study the mechanism of SFI on vascular endothelial-cadherin (VE-cadherin), ZO-1, Claudin-5 and junctional adhesion molecule-2 (JAM-2) which are related to permeability regulation.

MLE-12 cells were divided into a control group, a LPS group and a SFI + LPS group. To make an acute sepsis cell model, MLE-12 cells were induced with 2.0 μg/mL LPS for 4 h in the LPS group and SFI + LPS group. The SFI group and SFI + LPS group were pretreated with 100 μL/mL SFI for 2 h, and the control group was only cultured with medium for 6 h. Cell viability of each group was measured by the cell counting kit-8, and the protein expression levels of VE-cadherin, ZO-1, Claudin-5 and JAM-2 were analyzed by Western-blotting.

There were statistically significant differences in the VE-cadherin, ZO-1, Claudin-5 and JAM-2 protein expression levels and cell viability among the four groups (F = 98.000, 73.060, 59.104, 83.007, 81.206; P = 0.043, 0.007, 0.003, 0.023, 0.001). Compared with the control group, the VE-cadherin, ZO-1, Claudin-5 and JAM-2 protein expression levels and cell viability in the LPS group significantly decreased, while the protein expression levels in the SFI group significantly increased. Compared with the LPS group, the VE-cadherin, ZO-1, Claudin-5 and JAM-2 protein expression levels and cell viability in SFI and SFI + LPS groups significantly increased, which were highest in the SFI group (all P < 0.05).

SFI could attenuate the down-regulation of permeability related proteins, and have a certain therapeutic effect on the increased alveolar permeability caused by LPS.