The protective effects of SB203580 against mortality and radiation induced intestinal injury of mice

This study is to investigate the protective effects of the SB203580 against radiation induced mortality and intestinal injury of mice.  A total of 67 male C57BL/6 mice (20.0−22.0 g) were matched according to body weight and randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, total body irradiation exposure (IR, 7.2Gy) only, and IR (7.2Gy) + SB203580 (15 mg?kg⁻¹).  30 days survival rate was observed in the experiment.  In intestinal injury experiment, the expression levels of caspase-3, Ki67, p53 and p-p38 were assayed in the mice intestine crypts.  The results showed that the 30 days survival rate was 100% (control), 0 (IR) and 40% (IR + SB203580), separately.  Compared to the IR groups, the positive cells of caspase-3, p53 and p-p38 in crypt cells decreased 33.00%, 21.78% and 34.63%, respectively.  The rate of positive cells of Ki67 increased 37.96%.  Significant difference was found between all of them (P < 0.01).  SB203580 potently protected against radiation- induced lethal and intestinal injury in mice, and it may be a potential radio protector.