Joung Jin-Yong, Choi Seo-Hyung, Son Chang-Gue
Liver and Immunology Research Center, Oriental Medical College of Daejeon University, 75, Daedeok-daero 176 beon-gil, Seo-gu, Daejeon 35235, Republic of Korea.
Department of Internal Medicine, Weedahm Oriental Hospital, 430, Yeoksam-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06200, Republic of Korea.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Jun 30;2021:9952691. doi: 10.1155/2021/9952691. eCollection 2021.
The pathophysiology of functional dyspepsia (FD) remains uncertain, but the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs), pacemakers that regulate gastrointestinal motility, are garnering attention as key modulators and therapeutic targets in FD. This review comprehensively discusses the involvement of ICCs in the pharmacologic actions of FD and as therapeutic targets for herbal products for FD.
A search of the literature was performed using PubMed by pairing "interstitial cells of Cajal" with "medicinal plant, herbal medicine, phytotherapy, flavonoids, or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)."
From the 55 articles screened in the initial survey, 34 articles met our study criteria. The search results showed that herbal products can directly depolarize ICCs to generate pacemaker potentials and increase the expression of c-kit and stem cell factors, helping to repair ICCs. Under certain pathological conditions, medicinal plants also protect ICCs from oxidative stress and/or inflammation-induced impairment. Two representative herbal decoctions ( , and ) have been shown to modulate ICC functions by both clinical and preclinical data.
This review strongly indicates the potential of herbal products to target ICCs and suggests that further ICC-based studies would be promising for the development of FD treatment agents.
功能性消化不良（FD）的病理生理学仍不明确，但作为调节胃肠动力的起搏器， Cajal间质细胞（ICCs）作为FD的关键调节因子和治疗靶点正受到关注。本综述全面讨论了ICCs在FD药理作用中的参与情况以及作为FD草药产品治疗靶点的情况。
通过在PubMed上搜索，将“Cajal间质细胞”与“药用植物、草药、植物疗法、黄酮类化合物或传统中药（TCM）”配对进行文献检索。
在初步检索筛选出的55篇文章中，有34篇符合我们的研究标准。检索结果表明，草药产品可直接使ICCs去极化以产生起搏电位，并增加c-kit和干细胞因子的表达，有助于修复ICCs。在某些病理条件下，药用植物还可保护ICCs免受氧化应激和/或炎症诱导的损伤。两种代表性的草药汤剂（ ，和 ）已通过临床和临床前数据证明可调节ICCs功能。
本综述有力地表明了草药产品靶向ICCs的潜力，并表明基于ICCs的进一步研究对于开发FD治疗药物具有前景。
