Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2017; 23(7): 1180-1188
Published online Feb 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i7.1180
Jianpi Qingchang decoction alleviates ulcerative colitis by inhibiting nuclear factor-κB activation
Lie Zheng, Ya-Li Zhang, Yan-Cheng Dai, Xuan Chen, De-Liang Chen, Yue-Ting Dai, Zhi-Peng Tang
Lie Zheng, Yan-Cheng Dai, Xuan Chen, De-Liang Chen, Yue-Ting Dai, Department of Gastroenterology, Longhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China
Lie Zheng, Ya-Li Zhang, Zhi-Peng Tang, Institute of Digestive Diseases, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China
Author contributions: Zheng L and Zhang YL contributed equally to this work, and both performed the majority of experiments and analysis of the data; Dai YC, Chen X and Dai YT participated in the treatment of animals; Chen DL conducted the ELISA; Zheng L and Tang ZP designed and coordinated the research; Zheng L wrote and revised the paper.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81403355 and No. 81573892; and the Project of 3-Year Action Plan for Shanghai Municipal Chinese Medicine Development, No. ZY3-RCPY-2-2001.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. SZY 201510001).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Zhi-Peng Tang, MD, PhD, Professor, Director, Institute of Digestive Diseases, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 725 Wanping Road, Shanghai 200032, China. zhipengtang@sohu.com
Telephone: +86-21-64385700 Fax: +86-21-64385700
Received: June 30, 2016
Peer-review started: July 1, 2016
First decision: August 29, 2016
Revised: September 13, 2016
Accepted: October 10, 2016
Article in press: October 10, 2016
Published online: February 21, 2017
Processing time: 235 Days and 0.5 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the therapeutic effect of Jianpi Qingchang decoction (JPQCD) on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in mice.

METHODS

C57BL/c mice were injected intragastrically with 5% DSS instead of drinking water for 7 d, and their body weight, diarrhea severity and fecal bleeding were monitored, while the mice in the control group were treated with standard drinking water, without DSS. After 7 d, the DSS drinking water was changed to normal water and the DSS group continued with DSS water. The control and DSS groups were given normal saline by intragastric injection. The 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) group was treated orally with 5-ASA at a dose of 100 mg/kg daily. The JPQCD group was treated orally with JPQCD at a dose of 17.1 g/kg daily. On day 14, the colon length was measured, the colorectal histopathological damage score was assessed, and protein levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in colon supernatants were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression of NF-κB and inhibitor of kappa B.

RESULTS

Acute inflammation occurred in the mice administered DSS, including the symptoms of losing body weight, loose feces/watery diarrhea and presence of fecal blood; all these symptoms worsened at 7 d. The colons of mice treated with DSS were assessed by histological examination, and the results confirmed that acute inflammation had occurred, as evidenced by loss of colonic mucosa and chronic inflammatory cell infiltration, and these features extended into the deeper layer of the colon walls. The expression levels of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α in the DSS group were higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and the expression levels of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α in the JPQCD and 5-ASA groups were lower than those in the DSS group after treating with JPQCD and 5-ASA. Comparing with the DSS group, the mRNA level of IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α and NF-κB was significantly reduced by 5-ASA and JPQCD. The difference between JPQCD and 5-ASA groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Comparing with the DSS group, due to using JPQCD and 5-ASA, significant suppression of activation in DSS-induced NF-κB and increased phosphorylation of IκB in mice with experimental colitis occurred (P < 0.05). The difference between the JPQCD group and the 5-ASA group was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway is inhibited by JPQCD, which shows the potential mechanism by which JPQCD treats UC.

Keywords: Jianpi Qingchang decoction; Dextran sodium sulfate; Ulcerative colitis; Nuclear factor-κB; Inflammation

Core tip: Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) is a major transcription factor inducing the expression of inflammatory mediators, which plays a crucial role in the transcription in diverse immune responses, and its signaling has been confirmed to be a major pathway for ulcerative colitis. It is demonstrated in the current study that Jianpi Qingchang decoction (JPQCD), which can decrease levels of proinflammatory cytokines, plays a role in inhibiting nuclear translocation of NF-κB and phosphorylation of inhibitor of kappa B, thus indicating that JPQCD can suppress the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway.