The protective and healing effects of Si Shen Wan in trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid-induced colitis

Ethnopharmacological relevanceSi Shen Wan is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine formula for the treatment of diseases with diarrhea, such as ulcerative colitis, allergic colitis and chronic colitis. To investigate the protective and healing effects of Si Shen Wan in the experimental colitis induced by trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid, and to furture explore its mechanism of action.Materials and methodsRats with colitis treated with Si Shen Wan for 10 days. Colon wet weight, colon organ coefficient, colonic damage score and pathological change after trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid challenge were determined. The levels of MPO, MDA, GSH-PX, SOD and the expression of IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA in the colon were also measured.ResultsAfter treatment, colon wet weight, colon organ coefficient and colonic damage score were lower than that in the control group (p<0.05). MDA and MPO concentrations in the inflamed colonic tissues were decreased remarkably in the treated groups compared with that in the control group (p<0.05). But SOD level, IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA expression in the inflamed colonic tissues were obviously increased.ConclusionsIt is a potential path that protective effect of Si Shen Wan on impaired colonic mucosa rats with experimental colitis was accomplished by down-regulating the level of MDA and MPO, and up-regulating the level of SOD and the IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA expression in the colon mucosa.

Graphical AbstractUlcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Oxidative damage and down-expression of anti-inflammatory factor are seen as important characters. Si Shen Wan (SSW) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine formula in Chinese pharmacopoeias, and used to treat ulcerative colitis. However, the mechanism and quantification of main constituents for the attenuation effect of SSW on UC is not fully defined. The present study validated the effect of SSW on UC and explored the underlying mechanism in rats with experimental colitis and HPLC was used to control the quality of SSW.360