Improvement of Oxazolone-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Rats Using Andrographolide
Liuhong Zhang,
Ning Cao,
Yuwen Wang,
Youxu Wang,
Chao Wu,
Xuemei Cheng,
Changhong Wang
Affiliations
Liuhong Zhang
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Ning Cao
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Yuwen Wang
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Youxu Wang
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Chao Wu
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Xuemei Cheng
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Changhong Wang
Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The MOE Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Centre for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is usually accompanied with symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bloody stool, which impair the quality of life of patients. Previous studies have shown that Andrographis paniculata extracts, which have andrographolide (AND) as their main compound, can relieve UC symptoms in patients. The aim of the study was to investigate the alleviating effect of AND on UC using the oxazolone (OXZ)-induced UC rat model. A total of 66 healthy male Sprague Dawley rats were used to evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of AND on UC (n = 11 per group) and grouped into control, model, SASP (sulfasalazine, positive control group, 500 mg/kg), AND-L (40 mg/kg), AND-M (80 mg/kg), and AND-H (120 mg/kg). The colonic disease activity index (DAI), colon length, spleen coefficient, pathological damage, and inflammation-related cytokine and protein expression levels were used as indices for evaluation. Results showed that the AND groups had reduced DAI and mortality, and significantly improved colon length and spleen coefficient compared with the model group. Furthermore, OXZ-induced histological injury was relieved significantly after AND treatment due to an improved crypt structure and reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells. Moreover, AND inhibited myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and the secretion of interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-13, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). The results of the anti-inflammatory mechanism revealed that AND blocked the signal transduction by reducing IL-4/IL-13 specific binding to IL-4 receptor (IL-4R) and inhibiting the phosphorylation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (p-STAT6). In conclusion, aside from natural plants, AND may be a candidate ingredient for UC therapy.
