Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, People's Republic of China.
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, People's Republic of China; College of Animal Science, Tarim University, Alar, Xinjiang 843300, People's Republic of China.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2019 May;70:201-207. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2019.02.033. Epub 2019 Feb 26.
Endometritis is one of the main diseases that causes great economic losses in the dairy industry. Recent studies have shown that matrine extracted from the traditional Chinese herb Sophora flavescens is an alkaloid with a broad range of bioactivities. Here, we aimed to investigate the protective effects of matrine on Staphylococcus aureus lipoteichoic acid (LTA)-induced endometritis in mice and elucidate the possible molecular mechanisms in vitro. Histopathological changes showed that matrine remarkably attenuated the uterus injury in a mouse model of LTA-induced endometritis. qPCR and ELISA results showed that matrine dose-dependently reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β). To further elucidate the underlying mechanisms of this protective effect of matrine, LTA-stimulated bovine endometrial epithelial cells (bEECs) were employed in this study. The results demonstrated that TLR2 expression and its downstream nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation were both suppressed by matrine treatment. Furthermore, a small interference RNA targeting TLR2 gene mimicked matrine in its inhibition on LTA-induced activation of TLR2 and NF-κB. In conclusion, these findings suggest the protective effect of matrine against LTA-induced endometritis through negative regulation of TLR2-mediated NF-κB pathway.
子宫内膜炎是导致奶牛养殖业重大经济损失的主要疾病之一。最近的研究表明,从传统中药苦参中提取的苦参碱是一种具有广泛生物活性的生物碱。在这里,我们旨在研究苦参碱对金黄色葡萄球菌脂磷壁酸(LTA)诱导的小鼠子宫内膜炎的保护作用,并在体外阐明可能的分子机制。组织病理学变化表明,苦参碱显著减轻了 LTA 诱导的子宫内膜炎小鼠模型中的子宫损伤。qPCR 和 ELISA 结果表明,苦参碱呈剂量依赖性降低促炎细胞因子(TNF-α和 IL-1β)的表达。为了进一步阐明苦参碱这种保护作用的潜在机制,本研究采用了金黄色葡萄球菌脂磷壁酸(LTA)刺激的牛子宫内膜上皮细胞(bEEC)。结果表明,苦参碱处理抑制了 TLR2 表达及其下游核因子(NF)-κB 的激活。此外,针对 TLR2 基因的小干扰 RNA 模拟了苦参碱抑制 LTA 诱导的 TLR2 和 NF-κB 激活的作用。总之,这些发现表明苦参碱通过负调控 TLR2 介导的 NF-κB 通路对 LTA 诱导的子宫内膜炎具有保护作用。