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Anti-inflammatory Activity of Mollugin on DSS-induced Colitis in Mice

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Summary

We aimed to explore the anti-inflammatory activity of mollugin extracted from Rubia cordifolia L, a traditional Chinese medicine, on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in mice. Thirty C57BL/6 mice were divided into a control group (n=6), a model group (n=6), and three experimental groups (40, 20, 10 mg/kg of mollugin, n=6 each). DSS solution (3%) was given to mice in the model group and experimental groups from day 4 to day 10 to induce the mouse UC model. Mice in the experimental groups were intragastrically administrated mollugin from day 1 to day 10. Animals were orally given distilled water in the control group for the whole experiment time and in the model group from day 1 to day 3. The changes in colon pathology were detected by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the serum, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN) in the tissues were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Expression levels of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and myeloid differentiation factor 88 in the colon tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. Results showed that mollugin could significantly reduce weight loss and the disease activity index in the DSS-induced UC mouse model. HE examinations demonstrated that mollugin treatment effectively improved the histological damage (P<0.05). The overproduction of IL-1β and TNF-α was remarkably inhibited by mollugin treatment at doses of 20 and 40 mg/kg (P<0.05). Additionally, the levels of TLR4 in colon tissues were significantly reduced in mollugin-treated groups compared with the DSS group. Our findings demonstrated that mollugin ameliorates DSS-induced UC by inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory chemocytokines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Juan Li, Xue-peng Gong, Meng Xiao, Yuan-yuan Song & Guang Du

  2. Department of Pharmacy, The Central Hospital of Xianning, Xianning, 437100, China

    Jin-ling Zhang

  3. School of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Hui-fang Pi

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  1. Juan Li
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  2. Jin-ling Zhang
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  4. Meng Xiao
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  7. Guang Du
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Correspondence to Guang Du.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81703380), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2017CFB782), the Scientific Research Project of Health and Family Planning Commission of Hubei Province (No. WJ2017M077), and the Applied Basic Research Project of Wuhan Science and Technology Bureau (No. 2017060201010215).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization or corporation or individual that can inappropriately influence this work.

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Li, J., Zhang, Jl., Gong, Xp. et al. Anti-inflammatory Activity of Mollugin on DSS-induced Colitis in Mice. CURR MED SCI 40, 910–916 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-020-2262-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-020-2262-5

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