Several reports indicate that
melatonin alleviates
bleomycin (BLM)-induced
pulmonary fibrosis in rodent animals. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism remains obscure. The present study investigated the effects of
melatonin on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during BLM-induced lung
fibrosis. For the induction of
pulmonary fibrosis, mice were intratracheally injected with a single dose of BLM (5.0 mg/kg). Some mice were intraperitoneally injected with
melatonin (5 mg/kg) daily for a period of 3 wk. Twenty-one days after BLM injection, lung
fibrosis was evaluated. As expected,
melatonin significantly alleviated BLM-induced
pulmonary fibrosis, as evidenced by Sirius red staining. Moreover,
melatonin significantly attenuated BLM-induced EMT to myofibroblasts, as determined by its repression of α-SMA expression. Further analysis showed that
melatonin markedly attenuated BLM-induced
GRP78 up-regulation and elevation of the cleaved ATF6 in the lungs. Moreover,
melatonin obviously attenuated BLM-induced activation of pulmonary eIF2α, a downstream target of the PERK pathway. Finally,
melatonin repressed BLM-induced pulmonary IRE1α phosphorylation. Correspondingly,
melatonin inhibited BLM-induced activation of XBP-1 and JNK, two downstream targets of the IRE1 pathway. Taken together, these results suggest that
melatonin alleviates ER stress and ER stress-mediated EMT in the process of BLM-induced
pulmonary fibrosis.