Objective To investigate the protective effect and it's possible mechanism of Tanshinone ⅡA in radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis.Methods Having the right hemithorax of female Wistar rats irradiated(30?Gy) in 10 fractions within 14 days by 6 ?MV photons,the radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis animal model was established.In the treatment group,sodium Tanshinone ⅡA sulfonate(15?mg/kg) was given by intraperitoneal injection 1 hour before each fraction of irradiation.Five months after irradiation,the difference of the histopathological changes,the hydroxyproline content and expression of TGF-?1 between the radiation alone group,tanshinone plus radiation and control group were analyzed by HE stain,Massion stain,immunohistochemical methor and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) method.Results The histopathological comparison revealed the protective effect of Tanshinone ⅡA.The content of hydroxyproline was(21.99?3.96),((38.25?)(7.18)),(28.94?4.29)??g/g in the control group,radiation alone group and radiation plus Tanshinone ⅡA.The expression of TGF-?1(mRNA and protein) was reduced by Tanshinone ⅡA.Pathological changes of the pulmonary fibrosis was reduced by Tanshinone ⅡA yet.Conclusions Our study shows that Tanshinone ⅡA can inhibit radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis,and the possible mechanism of its may be made possible through down-regulating the expression of TGF-?1 in the irritated lung tissue.

Early diagnosis of liver fibrosis and dynamic monitoring of relevant changes have great implications for the treatment and prognosis improvement of chronic liver diseases. So far, liver biopsy remains the “golden standard” for the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis. However, due to its inherent limitations, a great effort has been made to develop more accurate non-invasive diagnostic methods, including serum fibrosis markers and mathematical models, ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, ultrasonic elastography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and nuclear medicine. The advantages and disadvantages of relevant methods are discussed. Furthermore, proper selection of the non-invasive diagnostic methods for clinical application and the means for mutual verification are analyzed. As for the future direction, it is expected to employ the above methods for combined analysis and comprehensive assessment, in order to enhance the clinical value of non-invasive liver fibrosis diagnosis.