Preventive Effects of Pyungwi-san against Dextran Sulfate Sodium- and Clostridium difficile-Induced Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mice

Abstract

Several lines of evidence indicate that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with Clostridium difficile (CD) infection as a consequence of gut dysbiosis. Currently available treatments of IBD are either not very effective or have adverse effects. Pyungwi-san (PWS), a traditional Chinese herbal formulation, has long been used to treat gastrointestinal disorders. The present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of PWS against dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) + CD-induced IBD in mice. The animals received DSS in drinking water for seven days to produce DSS-induced acute colitis. In the DSS + CD group, the DSS-fed animals were orally administered with CD spores twice during the DSS treatment period. We observed that exposure of DSS + CD-treated animals to PWS significantly decreased the disease activity index; prevented the shortening of colonic length and increases in spleen size and weight; restored colonic histological parameters by significantly increasing mucus thickness, crypt depth, and goblet cell numbers; protected the tight junction proteins; improved the profiles of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines; and normalized the abundance ratio of the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes in the gut. Thus, PWS exerted a number of protective effects on DSS + CD-induced colitis, which might be mediated via restoration of a balance in gut microbial communities.

Chinese herbal medicines for treating ulcerative colitis via regulating gut microbiota-intestinal immunity axis

“… Modulating metabolic profiles: adenosine, lysopc, glycocholic acid, and deoxycholic acid ↓; Regulating fecal metabolite profiles: cholic acid, α-linolenic acid, stearidonic acid, and L-tryptophan ↑ Proteobacteria↓ Bacteroidetes↑ Blautia ↑ Muribaculaceae_norank ↑ Prevotellaceae UCG001 ↑ Ruminiclostridium 9 ↑ Clostridium sensu stricto 1 ↓ Escherichia_ Shigella ↓ Enterobacter ↓ ( Zou, Shen, Chen, Zhang, & Xiao, 2020 ) Pyungwi-san Decoction (PWS) 2.5% DSS + CD ( Clostridium difficile ) for 7 d (days 0 to 6) 669.1 mg/(kg·d) for 9 d (days 2 to 6) Cecum weight, spleen weight, colonic length, body weight, colonic histology, DAI score PWS exerted a number of protective effects on DSS + CD-induced colitis, which might be mediated via restoration of a balance in gut microbial communities. Regulating tissue expression of inflammatory: IL-1β↓, IL-10 and TGF-β↑; Protecting intestinal tight junction proteins: claudin-1 and occluding ↑ Bacteroidetes ↑ Firmicutes ↓ Roseberia ↑ Bacteriodes ↑ Lactobacillus ↑ Prevotella ↑ Clostridium cluster IV ↑ A.muciniphila ↓ Prevotella ↓ Escherichia coli ↓ A.muciniphila ↓ ( Yang, Bose, Lim, & Kim, 2019 ) Qingchang Huashi Formula (QHF) Chronic colitis: 2% DSS for 7 d and distilled water for 14 d, and repeated for 3 cycles; acute colitis: 2.5% DSS for 7 d QHF [36 g/(kg·d)] was intragastric administrated 3 d prior to the DSS treatment and continued until the endpoint of experiment Body weight, DAI score, colon length, colonic histology QHF [march to the effect of 5-ASA, 50 mg/(kg·d)] and each single herb of it showed protective effect in acute and chronic colitis. Alleviating inflammation: IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α ↓; regulating NLRP3/IL-1β pathway; Protecting integrity of intestinal barrier: Muc2, Reg3γ, ZO-1 and Occludin ↑ Firmicutes ↑ Bacteroidetes ↓ Bifidobacterium ↑ Bacteroidales ↑ Butyrate acid ↑ Isobutyric acid ↑ Valeric acid ↑ Acetic acid ↓ 4-methylisovaleric acid ↓ ( Hu, Huang, Che, Ding, & Zhang, 2020 ) Rhubarb Peony Decoction (RPD) 2.5% DSS for 5 d (days 1 to 5) 5, 10, 20 g/(kg·d) for 14 d (days 1 to 14) Body weight, DAI score, colon length, spleen index, colonic histology Protective effect at dose-dependently which seemed ...…”

Inflammatory bowel disease: an overview of Chinese herbal medicine formula-based treatment

“…It has also been suggested that IBD is associated with Clostridium difficile (CDD) infection, resulting from dysbiosis of the intestinal flora. In contrast, Pyungwi-san normalizes the abundance ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes in the intestine and has some protective effect against DSS + CDD-induced colitis, which may be achieved by restoring the balance of the intestinal microbial community [ 27 ].…”

Effects of Live and Pasteurized Forms of Akkermansia from the Human Gut on Obesity and Metabolic Dysregulation

“…For H&E and AB/PAS staining of the desired tissues, the sections were placed on positively charged silicon-coated glass slides, deparaffinized with xylene and then rehydrated using a graded series of decreasing alcohol concentrations. Finally, the liver and epididymal adipose tissue sections were stained with H&E solution (Sigma-Aldrich) and the intestinal sections were stained with an alcian blue/PAS staining kit (Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA), in accordance with previous reports [40,41]. For Oil Red O staining of the liver, the hepatic tissues were embedded in FSC 22 Frozen Section Compound (mounting medium) (Leica Biosystems, Buffalo Grove, IL, USA) and frozen at −30 • C. The tissues were then sectioned at a 12 µm thickness using a Leica CM1860 Cryostat microtome (Leica Microsystems, Nussloch, Germany).…”

“…The images were captured using a DP70 digital camera (Olympus) at 100×, 200× and 400× magnifications. The histological parameters, such as the diameter and area of the adipocytes in the epididymal fat tissue, as well as the number of goblet cells, crypt depth and mucus layer thickness in the intestinal tissue sections, were analyzed, as described previously [26,41] using ImageJ, a public domain Java-based image-processing software developed at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA).…”