Professor Yi-Yang Hu and his colleagues confirmed that Jianpi Huoxue decoction (JHD) reduced the cytokine expression induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and inhibited some targets in LPS-activated Kupffer cell signal pathway. This may provide new insight on the mechanism of JHD on alcoholic liver injury.
This study, performed by a team led by Professor Hu, from the Institute of Liver Diseases, Shuguang Hospital, affiliated with the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,is described in a research article to be published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
This study confirmed one of the possible mechanisms of JHD on alcoholic liver injury, that it inhibits some targets in LPS-activated Kupffer cell signal pathway, such as the specific molecular marker of macrophage, CD68, phosphorylated inhibit- kappaB (p-I kappaB) protein expression, the endotoxin receptor and toll-like receptor (TLR2) mRNA expression.
JHD has proven to be effective in suppressing alcoholic liver and intestinal injury induced by the Lieber-Decarli liquid diet in rats. It has also proven to be effective in suppressing the concentration of LPS in plasma. Study has demonstrated the inhibitory effect of JHD on LPS-induced cytokine secretion pathway, but the relationship between endotoxin receptors and LPS should be investigated in more detail. Such research would contribute to further observing the effect of JHD on endotoxin receptors.
The "two-hits" theory brought great advances in pathogenesis research of alcoholic liver injury (ALD). At present, most attention is focused on the mechanism of the endotoxin or LPS signal pathway involved in ALD. The function of Kupffer cells and their cytokine secretion pathway when exposed to LPS has become the hotspot of this field. This research might provide a new effective method for alcoholic liver injury prevention and treatment.
Professor Hu and his colleagues work in the Institute of Liver Diseases, Shuguang Hospital, affiliated with the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which focuses on basic research on liver disease prevention and treatment with Chinese traditional medicine.
Reference: Peng JH, Hu YY, Cheng Y, Han C, Xu LL, Feng Q, Chen SD, Tao Q, Li HS, Li XM. Effect of JIANPI HUOXUE decoction on inflammatory cytokine secretion pathway in rat liver with lipopolysaccharide challenge. World J Gastroenterol 2008;14(12):1851-1857 wjgnet/1007-9327/14/1851.asp
Correspondence to: Professor Yi-Yang Hu, Institute of Liver Diseases, Shuguang Hospital, affiliated with the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection for providing a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
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Source: Jing Zhu
World Journal of Gastroenterology