Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2020; 26(11): 1156-1171
Published online Mar 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i11.1156
Protective effects of panax notoginseng saponin on dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in rats through phosphoinositide-3-kinase protein kinase B signaling pathway inhibition
Qing-Ge Lu, Li Zeng, Xiao-Hai Li, Yu Liu, Xue-Feng Du, Guo-Min Bai, Xin Yan
Qing-Ge Lu, Li Zeng, Xiao-Hai Li, Yu Liu, Xue-Feng Du, Guo-Min Bai, Department of Anorectal, Tangshan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China
Xin Yan, College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063210, Hebei Province, China
Author contributions: Lu QG and Zeng L designed the research; Li XH and Liu Y performed the research; Du XF and Bai GM analyzed the data; Yan X wrote the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81704059; Scientific Research Project of Hebei Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration, No. 2017130.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the North China University of Science and Technology Ethics Committee (Approval No. NCST2018196).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Animal Care Welfare Committee of North China University of Science and Technology (No. 20180809).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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 that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: Xin Yan, PhD, Professor, College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, North China University of Science and Technology, No. 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian New Town, Tangshan 063210, Hebei Province, China. y18301212703@163.com
Received: November 12, 2019
Peer-review started: November 12, 2019
First decision: December 23, 2019
Revised: December 27, 2019
Accepted: February 21, 2020
Article in press: February 21, 2020
Published online: March 21, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Intestinal inflammation is a common digestive tract disease at present, which is usually treated with hormone medications. Hormone medications are effective to some extent, but long-term use of them may bring about many complications. Therefore, it is very important to find new drugs to treat intestinal inflammation.

Research motivation

Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) are a class of drugs widely used in cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, which have been proven to have good inflammatory inhibition effects. However, there are few studies on the role and mechanism of PNS in rat models of intestinal inflammation. PNS may be an effective drug for intestinal inflammation.

Research objectives

This study aimed to explore the effects of PNS on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced intestinal inflammatory injury in rats, and its possible mechanism.

Research methods

The colitis rat models were constructed by inducing DSS, and treating with different concentrations of PNS to inhibit the phosphoinositide-3-kinase protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) signaling pathway in colon tissues. Then the intestinal injury, oxidative stress parameters, inflammatory indices, tight junction proteins, apoptosis, macrophage polarization, and PI3K/AKT signaling were detected in the tissues.

Research results

Compared with colitis rats, rats intervened with PNS showed significantly lengthened colons, decreased disease activity index, as well as significantly alleviated oxidative stress reactions and inflammatory responses. Furthermore, they showed significantly increased expression of tight junction-associated proteins, significantly decreased apoptotic cells, significantly decreased M1 macrophages in spleen and colon tissues, and significantly increased M2 macrophages in colon tissues. They also showed significantly suppressed activation of the PI3K /AKT signaling pathway, and dose-dependency. When the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway was inhibited, compared with colitis rats, the apoptosis rate of colon tissue treated with LY294002 decreased significantly.

Research conclusion

This study confirmed that PNS can protect rats against DSS-induced intestinal inflammatory injury by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and revealed that it may have potential to be used in the future as a drug for colitis.

Research perspective

It has been proven that PNS can play a protective role against intestinal injury in colitis rats by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and PNS may be a potential effective drug for treating colitis.