Oral administration of berberine represses macrophage activation-associated benign prostatic hyperplasia: a pivotal involvement of the NF-κB

Abstract

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most common chronic diseases in men over the age of 50. Clinical studies have suggested that chronic inflammation is associated with BPH pathoprogression. Berberine (BB) is a natural compound found in Berberis vulgaris , Coptis chinensis and Phellodendron amurense. Although several studies have documented that BB may be effective for inflammation, the effects of the oral administration of BB on BPH are not fully understood. The effects of BB on chronic prostatic inflammation were evaluated in a testosterone-induced BPH animal model. Orally administered BB alleviated the pathological alterations induced by BPH and significantly suppressed the expression of inflammatory markers while enhancing the expression of antioxidant factors. Furthermore, BB regulated the activation of macrophages via NF-κB signaling pathway inhibition in the BPH rat model. The effects and underlying signaling pathway of BB in RWPE-1 cells exposed to macrophage conditioned medium (CM) were also demonstrated in vitro . While CM stimulation induced prostatic cell proliferation and upregulated the expression of inflammatory factors, BB exerted anti-proliferation and anti-inflammatory effects in RWPE-1 cells. These findings propose that BB suppresses androgen-dependent BPH development by targeting NF-κB-mediated pro-inflammatory signaling.

Potential Therapeutic Activity of Berberine in Thyroid-Associated Ophthalmopathy: Inhibitory Effects on Tissue Remodeling in Orbital Fibroblasts

“…It seems that BBR has a pervasive repression on the NF-κB pathway in both animals and cultured cells. 49 – 51 Additionally, HA production and myofibroblast differentiation elicited by TGF-β were significantly decreased by BBR treatment. HAS2 was identified as the primary contributor to HA production in the orbit.…”

Targeting benign prostate hyperplasia treatments: AR/TGF-β/NOX4 inhibition by apocynin suppresses inflammation and proliferation

“…Total RNAs was isolated using the Easy-Blue® reagent (iNtRON Biotechnology, Inc., Gyeonggi-do, Korea) and reverse-transcribed into complementary DNA, following the manufacturer’s instructions. qRT-PCR analysis was performed as previously described [29] .…”