Margaret Zaitoun^{1, 2}, Maissam Ghanem^{1, 2}, Chang Liu^{1, 3}, Shuqing Wu^{1, 3}, Yuliang Cheng^{1, 3}, Weirong Yao^{1, 3}, Yahui Guo^{1, 3,}, He Qian^{1, 3,}

Cigarette smoke (CS) is a major risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Pathogenesis hallmarks in the lungs of COPD patients always contribute to causing inflammation and oxidative stress. Carotenoids, extracted from Sporidiobolus pararoseus, have antioxidant and antitumor effect. These carotenoids have a similar structure to lycopene, which is demonstrated effective in the treatment of lung inflammation. This presented work aims to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant functions of total carotenoids (TC), extracted from Sporidiobolus pararoseus, on mice under a short-term exposure of cigarette smoke. Forty-eight C57BL/6 male mice were divided into 6 groups (n=8): first group was control group exposed to ambient air, second group was CS group exposed to CS, third group was CS+LY18 group exposed to CS and treated with lycopene 18 mg/kg (CS+LY18), other groups (CS+TC18, CS+TC12, CS+TC9) exposed to CS and treated with (TC) at different doses (18, 12, 9 mg/kg) respectively. Treatment with TC especially at high dosage 18 mg/kg led to decrease the levels of MDA, GSH, activities of CAT, SOD in lung samples, as well as TNF-α and IL-6 levels in lungs and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, it attenuated the morphological changes in the lungs. The high dose of TC showed a stronger effect than lycopene. These results demonstrated that TC from Sporidiobolus pararoseus have effective functions for acute lung inflammation induced by CS, which suggested a positive intervention for the treatment of COPD.

Sporidiobolus pararoseus, total carotenoids, COPD, cigarette smoke, inflammation, oxidative stress