Mechanism of n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla Decoction in treating ulcerative colitis by activating BMP signaling pathway
The study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of the n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla Decoction(BEPD)on ulcera-tive colitis(UC)via the bone morphogenetic protein(BMP)signaling pathway.C57BL/6 mice were divided into six groups:control,model,mesalazine,and BEPD low-,medium-,and high-dose groups.Except for the control group,the rest groups were treated with 3％dextran sulfate sodium(DSS)freely for seven consecutive days to establish the UC mouse model,followed by treatment with differ-ent concentrations of BEPD and mesalazine by gavage.The murine body weight and disease activity index(DAI)were recorded.After the mice were sacrificed,their colon tissues were collected for histological analysis.Alcian blue/periodic acid-Schiff(AB/PAS)stai-ning was used to detect the number and mucus secretion status of goblet cells;immunohistochemistry was performed to measure the ex-pression of ki67,cleaved caspase-3,mucin 2(Muc2),and matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP9)in colon tissues;and immunofluores-cence was used to analyze the expression of tight junction proteins in colon tissues,and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was employed to quantify the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),interleukin(IL)-1β,and IL-6.Western blot was conducted to evaluate the expression of BMP pathway-related proteins in mouse colon tissues.Quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR)was per-formed to measure the expression of genes related to goblet cell differentiation in mouse colon tissues.In addition,this study also exam-ined the protective effect and underlying mechanism of BEPD-containing serum on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced barrier damages in LS174T goblet cells in vitro.The results showed that BEPD significantly alleviated UC symptoms in mice,restored goblet cell diffe-rentiation function,promoted Muc2 secretion and tight junction protein expression,and suppressed inflammatory factor secretion while activating the BMP signaling pathway.Therefore,BEPD may exert its therapeutic effects on UC by activating the BMP signaling path-way,providing a new strategy for drug intervention in UC.
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维普
