Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 14, 2019; 25(6): 683-695
Published online Feb 14, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i6.683
Effect of Sheng-jiang powder on multiple-organ inflammatory injury in acute pancreatitis in rats fed a high-fat diet
Yi-Fan Miao, Hong-Xin Kang, Juan Li, Yu-Mei Zhang, Hong-Yu Ren, Lv Zhu, Huan Chen, Ling Yuan, Hang Su, Mei-Hua Wan, Wen-Fu Tang
Yi-Fan Miao, Hong-Xin Kang, Juan Li, Yu-Mei Zhang, Hong-Yu Ren, Lv Zhu, Huan Chen, Ling Yuan, Hang Su, Mei-Hua Wan, Wen-Fu Tang, Department of Integrative Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Tang WF and Li J designed the research; Miao YF, Kang HX, Li J, Zhang YM, Ren HY, Zhu L, Chen H, Yuan L, and Su H performed the research; Miao YF, Kang HX, and Li J analyzed the data; Wan MH contributed new reagents or analytic tools; Miao YF and Kang HX wrote the paper.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81603519 and No. 81573857.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of West China Hospital of Sichuan University.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All rats were handled according to the University Guidelines and the Animal Care Committee Guidelines of West China Hospital (Chengdu, China) (protocol number, 2017052A).
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
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/
Corresponding author: Wen-Fu Tang, PhD, Professor, Department of Integrative Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37, Guoxue Lane, Wuhou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. tangwf@scu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-28-85423546 Fax: +86-28-85423373
Received: November 14, 2018
Peer-review started: November 14, 2018
First decision: December 28, 2018
Revised: January 10, 2019
Accepted: January 20, 2019
Article in press: January 21, 2019
Published online: February 14, 2019
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Obesity worsens inflammatory organ injury in acute pancreatitis (AP), but there is no effective preventive strategy. Sheng-jiang powder (SJP) has been shown to alleviate multiple-organ inflammatory injury in rats with high-fat diet-induced obesity. Hence, SJP is supposed to have an effect on multiple-organ inflammatory injury in AP in rats fed a high-fat diet.

AIM

To explore how obesity may contribute to aggravating inflammatory organ injury in AP in rats and observe the effect of SJP on multiple-organ inflammatory injury in AP in rats fed a high-fat diet.

METHODS

Rats were randomly assigned to a control group (CG), an obese group (OG), and an SJP treatment group (SG), with eight rats per group. The rats in the OG and SG were fed a high-fat diet. From the third week, the rats in the SG were given oral doses of SJP (5 g/kg of body weight). After 12 wk, AP was induced in the three groups. Serum amylase level, body weight, Lee’s index, serum biochemistry parameters, and serum inflammatory cytokine and tissue cytokine levels were assessed, and the tissue histopathological scores were evaluated and compared.

RESULTS

Compared with the CG, serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, interleukin-6, and interleukin-10 levels were significantly higher in the OG, and serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was significantly lower in the OG. Moreover, enhanced oxidative damage was observed in the pancreas, heart, spleen, lung, intestine, liver, and kidney. Evidence of an imbalanced antioxidant defense system, especially in the pancreas, spleen, and intestine, was observed in the obese AP rats. Compared with the OG, serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, interleukin-10, and superoxide dismutase expression levels in the pancreas, spleen, and intestine were increased in the SG. Additionally, SJP intervention led to a decrease in the following parameters: body weight; Lee’s index; serum triglyceride levels; serum total cholesterol levels; malondialdehyde expression levels in the pancreas, heart, spleen, lung, and liver; myeloperoxidase expression levels in the lung; and pathological scores in the liver.

CONCLUSION

Obesity may aggravate the inflammatory reaction and pathological multiple-organ injury in AP rats, and SJP may alleviate multiple-organ inflammatory injury in AP in rats fed a high-fat diet.

Keywords: Obesity, Acute pancreatitis, Sheng-jiang powder, Multiple-organ inflammatory injury, Oxidative stress

Core tip: Obesity worsens inflammatory organ injury in acute pancreatitis (AP), but there is no effective strategy. Sheng-jiang powder (SJP) has been shown to alleviate obesity-induced multiple-organ inflammatory injury. This study demonstrates that obesity may aggravate the inflammatory reaction and pathological injury in multiple organs in AP rats and that SJP may alleviate multiple-organ inflammatory injury in AP in rats fed a high-fat diet.