A 27-year old male with Hodgkin's lymphoma was treated with combined chemotherapy that included bleomycin. He presented with pruritic erythematous, edematous linear lesions and was diagnosed to have flagellate hyperpigmentation, a rare side effect of bleomycin chemotherapy.

This short review addresses the alterations induced by bleomycin in the lung, particularly those related to the induction of fibrosis. Bleomycin is a cytostatic drug commonly employed in the treatment of cancer. As a side effect of its therapeutic use, bleomycin induces in some patients chronic pulmonary inflammation that may progress to fibrosis. Endotracheal instillation of the drug has been ...

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been employed in the treatment of acute lung injury but its therapeutic value is as yet unproven. In the present study we examined the effect of both L- and D-forms of NAC as inhibitors of bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice. We hypothesized that, because of the D-form is not metabolized, it may be more effective than the L-form in ameliorating lung injury and fibrosis...

The effects of bleomycin and rapamycin on cellular senescence and differentiation of rabbit annulus fibrosus stem cells (AFSCs) were investigated using a cell culture model. The results showed that bleomycin induced cellular senescence in AFSCs as evidenced by senescence-associated secretory phenotype. The morphology of AFSCs was changed from cobblestone-like cells to pancake-like cells. The se...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic interstitial lung disease caused by parenchymal lung damage due to inflammatory factors and fibrosis. Hypericum perforatum contains various flavonoids with antioxidant properties. This study aimed to evaluate protective effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Hypericum against bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats. METHODS: This empi...

Pulmonary fibrosis refers to a group of lung diseases characterized by inflammation, fibroblast proliferation, and excessive collagen deposition. Although the mechanisms underlying pulmonary fibrosis are poorly understood, current evidence suggests that epithelial injury contributes to the development of fibrosis. Regenerative medicine approaches using extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds have ...

PURPOSE To evaluate pulmonary epithelial permeability using 99mTc-DTPA scintigraphy in patients treated with bleomycin-containing regimens. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twelve non-smoking chemotherapy-naïve patients with no clinical or radiological evidence of pulmonary disease and treated with bleomycin-containing chemotherapy were tested with 99mTc-DTPA scintigraphy before the first cycle and every...

This study examines the hypothesis that mediators from lung endothelial cells could promote lung collagen synthesis in pulmonary fibrosis. Since bleomycin induces pulmonary fibrosis in humans and animals, the effects of this drug on endothelial cells were examined. Endothelial cell conditioned media were prepared in the presence of various doses of bleomycin, and tested for their ability to sti...

Epithelial cell injury and apoptosis are recognised as early features in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice. Telomerase is a known apoptosis-alleviating factor. The role of telomerase was studied during bleomycin-induced lung epithelial cell (LEC) apoptosis in vitro in a mouse LEC line, and in vivo in LECs isolated from bleomycin-treated mice. The current autho...

Although bleomycin, an antineoplastic drug, is used in the treatment of a variety of tumors, the mechanisms of bleomycin-induced lung injury and fibrosis are not fully elucidated. We postulated that bleomycin might stimulate A549 cells, a type II pneumocyte cell line, to release neutrophil and monocyte chemotactic activities (NCA and MCA, respectively). To test this hypothesis, A549 cell supern...