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Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic recurrent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The conventional drugs for UC may induce severe side effects. Herbal medicine is considered as a complementary and alternative choice for UC.Purpose: This study aims to estimate the effect of natural polyphenol gallic acid (GA) on the NLRP3 inflammasome with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice.Study design: The body weights and symptoms of BALB/c mice were recorded. Histological evaluation, ELISA, q-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and western blotting were carried out to observe the morphology, cytokine contents, mRNA expressions, and protein expressions, respectively. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophage was used to probe GA’s effect on relative protein expression.Results: GA attenuated weight loss (p < 0.05), relieved symptoms, and ameliorated colonic morphological injury (p < 0.05) in mice with colitis induced by DSS. GA also lowered the contents of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, IL-33, and IFN-γ in the serum and colon of mice, which were elevated by DSS, downregulated protein, and mRNA expressions of the NLRP3 pathway in the colon tissue. Furthermore, GA downregulated the expressions of NLRP3 (p < 0.05), iNOS (p < 0.01), COX2 (p < 0.01), and P-p65 (p < 0.05), and suppressed NO release (p < 0.001) in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells.Conclusion: GA ameliorated DSS-induced UC in mice via inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome. These findings furnish evidence for the anti-inflammatory effect of herbal medicines containing GA on UC.

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BackgroundBufothionine is an alkaloid in Cinobufacini (Huachansu). This study aims to investigate the effects of bufothionine on liver tumors and acute liver injury.MethodsIn the hepatoprotective experiment, fifty rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 10): normal saline group, model group, compound glycyrrhizin injection (9.14 mL/kg); cinobufacini injection (3.42 mL/kg) (InjA) and bufothionine (9.77 mL/kg) (BufoA) group. Liver weight indices were recorded to judge the degree of liver swelling, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of liver tissues was carried out to observe liver histological morphology injury and biochemical indicators including aspartate aminotransferase (AST); alanine aminotransferase (ALT); alkaline phosphatase (ALP); and total bilirubin (TBIL) were determined by modular auto-analyzer. In anti-tumor experiment, H22-tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into five groups (n = 10): normal saline group, model group, cinobufacini injection (InjB) (5.14 mL/kg), bufothionine (8.02 mL/kg) (BufoB) and 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) (3.42 mL/kg). Tumors were picked out and determined with vernier calipers. Histological morphology of tumors was observed by H&E staining. In SMMC-7721 cells, expressions of proteins related to mitochondria-mediated apoptosis pathway including Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3, caspase-9, cyto-c, Bid, and p53 were analyzed by western blotting at low, medium, high concentrations of bufothione (3.62 μg/mL, 18.12 μg/mL,90.62 μg/mL).ResultsButothionine relieved CCl4-induced liver morphology, decreased the level of ALT (P =2.46 × 10-2) and expressed tendency to decrease other biochemical markers including AST, ALP and TBIL. Butothionine could also promote necrosis of tumor tissue in H22-tumor-bearing mice and restrained tumor growth with 65.16% inhibition rate. Its mechanism might relate to up-regulation of p53 (at low, mediate and high concentration, corresponding P values were 0.142, 0.0257, 0.0162), caspase-3 (P = 0.246, 0.0267 and 0.0236), cyto-c (P = 0.276, 0.0343 and 0.0429), Bid (P = 0.0125, 0.0395 and 0.0132) and Bax (P = 0.563, 0.0492 and 0.0357) in a dose-dependent manner, down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression (P = 0.0232, 0.0178 and 0.0464), but had no significant effects on caspase-9 (P = 0.253, 0.147 and 0.287).ConclusionBufothionine induced the proteins for the mitochondria-mediated apoptosis that inhibits liver tumors and protects the liver against acute injury.

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Rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis and fructus Aurantii Immaturus compose dachengqi tang (DCQT), a classical formula of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that is used for acute intestinal obstruction and has been proven to be effective and economic. However, the ingredients of TCM are complicated, and it is unclear which ingredients are the most important for its effects. In this paper, the relationship between the spectra and effects is discussed to provide a powerful method and some insights into the quality control of the herbs and their formula. High-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprint analysis was performed to investigate the chemical structures in different batches of rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, fructus Aurantii Immaturus and DCQT. Hierarchical clustering analysis was employed to evaluate the similarities between fingerprints. Animal model of small intestinal propulsion was established to study the purgative functions of the herbs and DCQT. The relationship between the chemical ingredients and the effects was explored by regression analysis. HPLC fingerprint analysis results demonstrated variations between ingredients in different batches of rhizoma Rhei, cortex Magnoliae Officinalis, fructus Aurantii Immaturus and DCQT. The origin, collection time and preparation process may have contributed to these differences. Small intestinal propulsion results showed that, compared with the control group, the positive and therapeutic groups including single herbs and formula were significantly effective (P < 0.05). Spectrum-effect relationship results indicated that seven peak ingredients, hesperidin, aloe-emodin, honokiol, rhein, magnolol, emodin and sennoside A, were inducted in the regression equation, among which, the influence of sennoside A was the largest and most positively associated with the effects. The data analysis results indicated that many ingredients contributed to the purgative effects, among which, sennoside A might be the most important effective component; therefore, sennoside A should be determined for quality control. Furthermore, the spectrum-effect relationship is simple, operative and suitable for the quality evaluation of TCM.

Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) is a classic Chinese herbal formula which consists of Astragali mongholici Radix and Angelica sinensis Radix (ASR). For chemical ingredients, HPLC were performed. Results showed compared with single herbs, DBT decoction could promote the dissolution of ingredients such as ferulic acid and calycosin. Furthermore, when ratio of AMR to ASR was 5 to 1, synthetic score was the best. For angiogenesis, normal and injured zebrafish model were applied. Results showed DBT and its ingredients had angiogenesis effects on Sub Intestinal vessels (SIVs) of normal zebrafish. Meanwhile, DBT and its single herbs could also recover Inter-Segmental Vessels (ISVs) injured by VRI. Angiogenesis effects of DBT on ISVs were better than single herbs. AMR extract, Total Saponins of AMR, Polysaccharide of ASR, ferulic acid, calycosin and calycosin-7-glucoside could be effective ingredients for angiogenisis. For endothelium functions, Lysoph-Osphatidyl choline was used to damage rat endothelial function of thoracic aorta. The results showed DBT and its single herbs could improve endothelial dysfunctions in dose-dependence. Both ferulic acid and calycosin-7-glucoside could also improve endothelium dysfunction in dose dependence. Therefore, compatibility of DBT was reasonable. Compared with single herbs, DBT could promote dissolution of effective ingredients, enhance angiogenesis and relieve endothelial dysfunction.