Department of Dermatology and Venerology, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Šalata 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Molecules. 2012 Oct 1;17(10):11680-92. doi: 10.3390/molecules171011680.
Recently discovered anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of melanocortin peptides led to the conclusion that they might serve as new anti-inflammatory therapeutics. The purpose of this work was to examine the effectiveness of β-melanocortin (β-MSH) in two experimental models: ethanol-induced gastric lesions and TNBS (2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid)-induced colitis in male Wistar rats. Three progressive doses of β-MSH were used: 0.125, 0.250 and 0.500 mg/kg. Our results suggest that β-MSH acts as a protective substance in the gastric lesions model, which can be seen as a statistically significant reduction of hemorrhagic lesions at all three doses, compared to the control group. The most efficient dose was 0.250 mg/kg. Statistically significant reduction in mucosal surface affected by necrosis and the reduction of overall degree of inflammation in the colitis model indicates an anti-inflammatory effect of β-MSH at a dose of 0.250 mg/kg. The results justify further research on β-MSH peptide and its derivates in the inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases, and point out the possibility of using β-MSH in studies of digestive system pharmacology.
最近发现的黑色素浓缩素肽具有抗炎和免疫调节特性，这使得人们认为它们可能成为新的抗炎治疗药物。本研究的目的是在两种实验模型中检验β-黑色素浓缩素（β-MSH）的有效性：乙醇诱导的胃损伤和三硝基苯磺酸（TNBS）诱导的雄性 Wistar 大鼠结肠炎。使用了三种递增剂量的β-MSH：0.125、0.250 和 0.500mg/kg。我们的结果表明，β-MSH 在胃损伤模型中是一种保护物质，与对照组相比，所有三种剂量均能显著减少出血性损伤。最有效的剂量为 0.250mg/kg。在结肠炎模型中，β-MSH 在 0.250mg/kg 剂量下可显著减少粘膜表面坏死面积，并降低整体炎症程度，表明其具有抗炎作用。这些结果证明了进一步研究β-MSH 肽及其衍生物在炎症性胃肠道疾病中的合理性，并指出了在消化系统药理学研究中使用β-MSH 的可能性。
