Effect of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Shuganjieyu Formula on Constipation Type Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Brain-gut Axis in Rats

Abstract

ObjectiveTo observe the intervention effect of Shuganjieyu Formula on the rat model of constipation irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) and its effects on 5- hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and to explore their mechanism of regulating brain-gut axis function.MethodsTotally fourty rats were randomly divided into four groups with 10 rats in each group, including normal control group, model group, low (5 mg/kg) and high (20 mg/kg) doses of Shuganjieyu Formula groups. Except for the normal control group, the other three groups of rats were gavaged with ice water for preparing the IBS-C model. Subsequently, the low and high doses groups of rats were treated with Shuganjieyu Formula for 2 weeks via oral gavage. The body weight of rats, total particle number and water content of fecal in the four groups were observed for 28 days. At last, serum of inferior vena cava and colon were collected from rats after anesthesia of 3% pentobarbital sodium. The morphological changes of colon tissue and the count of mast cells (MC) were observed with light microscope. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the positive expression of 5-HT in the colon of rats in each group. The serum levels of 5-HT, CRH and ACTH were detected by ELISA.ResultsCompared with the normal control group, the body weight of rats in IBS-C model group increased slowly, the number of fecal grains and the fecal water content decreased (P<0.05); the number of MC cells, the positive expression of 5-HT in colon tissue increased significantly in IBS-C group (P<0.05); the content of 5-HT in serum increased significantly, while the content of ACTH decreased significantly in IBS-C group (P<0.05). Colonic morphology showed no abnormal pathological changes in IBS-C model group. Compared with the model group, the body weight, fecal granule number and fecal water content of rats in each dose group of traditional Chinese medicine increased, but the differences were not statistically significant. The colon tissue structure of rats in each dose group of traditional Chinese medicine was normal. Compared with the model group, the number of MC cells and the positive expression of 5-HT in each dose group of traditional Chinese medicine decreased significantly (P<0.05), the content of 5-HT in serum decreased significantly, while the content of ACTH increased significantly (P<0.05). The dose-effect relationship between the low and high doses groups of Shuganjieyu Formula was not statistically significant.ConclusionThe traditional Chinese medicine Shuganjieyu Formula can effectively improve the dysfunction of brain-gut axis in IBS-C model rats, and has a good therapeutic effect on IBS-C.

Keywords

• constipation irritable bowel syndrome
• shuganjieyu formula
• brain-gut axis function
• rats