Araújo, Natália Pereira da SilvaMatos, Natália Alves deOliveira, MichelSouza, Ana Beatriz Farias deCastro, Thalles de FreitasMachado Júnior, Pedro AlvesSouza, Débora Maria Soares deSilva, André Talvani Pedrosa daCangussú, Silvia DantasMenezes, Rodrigo Cunha Alvim deBezerra, Frank Silva2023-03-202023-03-202022ARAÚJO, N. P. da S. et al. Quercetin improves pulmonary function and prevents emphysema caused by exposure to cigarette smoke in male mice. Antioxidants, v. 11, n. 2, artigo 181, 2022. Disponível em: <https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/11/2/181>. Acesso em: 11 out. 2022.2076-3921http://www.repositorio.ufop.br/jspui/handle/123456789/16395Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and cigarette smoke is a key factor in the development of COPD. Thus, the development of effective therapies to prevent the advancement of COPD has become increasingly essential. We hypothesized that quercetin protects lungs in mice exposed to long-term cigarette smoke. Thirty-five C57BL/6 mice were exposed to cigarette smoke (12 cigarettes per day) for 60 days and pretreated with 10 mg/kg/day of quercetin via orogastric gavage. After the experimental protocol, the animals were euthanized and samples were collected for histopathological, antioxi- dant defense, oxidative stress and inflammatory analysis. The animals exposed to cigarette smoke showed an increase in respiratory rate and hematological parameters, cell influx into the airways, oxidative damage and inflammatory mediators, besides presenting with alterations in the pulmonary histoarchitecture. The animals receiving 10 mg/kg/day of quercetin that were exposed to cigarette smoke presented a reduction in cellular influx, less oxidative damage, reduction in cytokine levels, improvement in the histological pattern and improvement in pulmonary emphysema compared to the group that was only exposed to cigarette smoke. These results suggest that quercetin may be an agent in preventing pulmonary emphysema induced by cigarette smoke.en-USabertoOxidative stressChronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseArtigo publicado em periodicoThis article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Fonte: o PDF do artigo.https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox11020181