Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulating Lymphangiogenesis: A Literature Review

Abstract

Lymphatic vessels, as an important part of the lymphatic system, form a fine vascular system in humans and play an important role in regulating fluid homeostasis, assisting immune surveillance and transporting dietary lipids. Dysfunction of lymphatic vessels can cause many diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, lymphedema, inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis. Research on lymphangiogenesis has become increasingly important over the last few decades. Nevertheless, the explicit role of regulating lymphangiogenesis in preventing and treating diseases remains unclear owing to the lack of a deeper understanding of the cellular and molecular pathways of the specific and tissue-specific changes in lymphangiopathy. TCM, consisting of compound extracted from TCM, Injections of single TCM and formula, is an important complementary strategy for treating disease in China. Lots of valuable traditional Chinese medicines are used as substitutes or supplements in western countries. As one of the main natural resources, these TCM are widely used in new drug research and development in Asia. Moreover, as a historical and cultural heritage, TCM has been widely applied to clinical research on lymphangiogenesis leveraging new technologies recently. Available studies show that TCM has an explicit effect on the regulation of lymphatic regeneration. This review aims to clarify the function and mechanisms, especially the inhibitory effect of TCM in facilitating and inhibiting lymphatic regeneration.

Lymphangiogenesis: A new strategy for heart disease treatment (Review)

“…Notably, there is a limited number of TCM studies addressing the regulation of lymphangiogenesis in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases ( 90 ). Studies have indicated that salvianolic acid B (SAB), a water-soluble phenolic compound isolated from Danshen, exhibits therapeutic effects on dilated cardiomyopathy, which is associated with lymphangiogenesis deficiency ( 91 ).…”

“…Consequently, future research should focus on further exploring the structure of lymphatic vessels to enhance our understanding of the way TCM operates. Although lymphangiogenesis is gradually recognized as a novel target for intervention in cardiovascular diseases, relatively few studies have been reported on the TCM for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases focusing on lymphangiogenesis ( 90 ) By contrast, TCM has been reported to treat arthritis and lymphedema by promoting lymphangiogenesis ( 131 , 132 ). Since lymphangiogenesis helps to impede the pathological processes of cardiovascular diseases, including fibrosis, edema and plaque formation by reversing cholesterol transport, draining local inflammation and eliminating excessive interstitial fluid, the role of TCM in the regulation of lymphangiogenesis will be a promising research direction.…”

Kuoxin Decoction promotes lymphangiogenesis in zebrafish and in vitro based on network analysis

“…In recent years, many studies (Benvenuti et al, 2010) have confirmed that lymphatic capillaries are rare and the diameter of myocardial lymphatic vessels has decreased in myocardial interstitial fibrosis in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Therapeutic lymphangiogenesis may be a promising new approach for the treatment of DCM-induced heart failure (Peng et al, 2020), but there are few effective and safe drugs promoting lymphangiogenesis.…”