Lee Hyeonhoon, Jung Kyung-Hwa, Park Soojin, Kil Yun-Seo, Chung Eun Young, Jang Young Pyo, Seo Eun-Kyoung, Bae Hyunsu
Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoeki-dongDongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Dec 20;14:513. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-513.
Stemona tuberosa has long been used in Korean and Chinese medicine to ameliorate various lung diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis. However, it has not yet been proven that Stemona tuberosa has positive effects on lung inflammation.
Stemona tuberosa extract (ST) was orally administered to C57BL/6 mice 2 hr before exposure to CS for 2 weeks. Twenty-four hours after the last CS exposure, mice were sacrificed to investigate the changes in the expression of cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), chemokines such as keratinocyte-derived chemokine (KC) and inflammatory cells such as macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Furthermore, we compared the effect of ST on lung tissue morphology between the fresh air, CS exposure, and ST treatment groups.
ST significantly decreased the numbers of total cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes in the BALF of mice that were exposed to CS. Additionally, ST reduced the levels of cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6) and the tested chemokine (KC) in BALF, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We also estimated the mean alveolar airspace (MAA) via morphometric analysis of lung tissues stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). We found that ST inhibited the alveolar airspace enlargement induced by CS exposure. Furthermore, we observed that the lung tissues of mice treated with ST showed ameliorated epithelial hyperplasia of the bronchioles compared with those of mice exposed only to CS.
These results indicate that Stemona tuberosa has significant effects on lung inflammation in a subacute CS-induced mouse model. According to these outcomes, Stemona tuberosa may represent a novel therapeutic herb for the treatment of lung diseases including COPD.
百部长期以来在韩国和中国医学中用于改善多种肺部疾病，如肺炎和支气管炎。然而，百部对肺部炎症具有积极作用尚未得到证实。
在暴露于香烟烟雾（CS）2周前2小时，对C57BL/6小鼠口服百部提取物（ST）。在最后一次CS暴露后24小时，处死小鼠以研究细胞因子如肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）和白细胞介素-6（IL-6）、趋化因子如角质形成细胞衍生趋化因子（KC）的表达变化，以及支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF）中巨噬细胞、中性粒细胞和淋巴细胞等炎性细胞的变化。此外，我们比较了ST对新鲜空气组、CS暴露组和ST治疗组小鼠肺组织形态的影响。
ST显著降低了暴露于CS的小鼠BALF中总细胞、巨噬细胞、中性粒细胞和淋巴细胞的数量。此外，通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）测量发现，ST降低了BALF中细胞因子（TNF-α、IL-6）和受试趋化因子（KC）的水平。我们还通过对苏木精和伊红（H&E）染色的肺组织进行形态计量分析来估计平均肺泡腔（MAA）。我们发现ST抑制了CS暴露诱导的肺泡腔扩大。此外，我们观察到，与仅暴露于CS的小鼠相比，用ST治疗的小鼠肺组织中小支气管的上皮增生有所改善。
这些结果表明，在亚急性CS诱导的小鼠模型中，百部对肺部炎症具有显著作用。根据这些结果，百部可能是一种用于治疗包括慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）在内的肺部疾病的新型治疗草药。
