Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, 814 Siksa-dong, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, 10326, Republic of Korea.
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2023 Jun 3;9(1):32. doi: 10.1038/s41522-023-00396-2.
Currently, considerable attention is focused on exploring the potential relationship between herbal medicine (HM) and the gut microbiome in terms of thermoregulation, which is an important aspect of human health, in modern system biology. However, our knowledge of the mechanisms of HM in thermoregulation is inadequate. Here, we demonstrate that the canonical herbal formula, Yijung-tang (YJT), protects against hypothermia, hyperinflammation, and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis in PTU-induced hypothyroid rats. Notably, these properties were associated with alterations in the gut microbiota and signaling crosstalk between the thermoregulatory and inflammatory mediators in the small intestine and brown adipose tissue (BAT). In contrast to the conventional drug L-thyroxine for curing hypothyroidism, YJT has an efficacy for attenuating systematic inflammatory responses, related with depression in intestinal TLR4 and Nod2/Pglyrp1 signaling pathways. Our findings suggest that YJT could promote BAT thermogenesis and prevent systemic inflammation in PTU-induced hypothyroid rats, which was associated with its prebiotic effect on modulating of the gut microbiota and gene expression with relevance in the enteroendocrine function and innate immune systems. These findings may strengthen the rationale of the microbiota-gut-BAT axis for a paradigm shift to enable holobiont-centric medicine.
目前，在现代系统生物学中，人们高度关注探索草药（HM）与肠道微生物群在体温调节方面的潜在关系，这是人类健康的一个重要方面。然而，我们对 HM 在体温调节中的作用机制知之甚少。在这里，我们证明了经典的草药配方益阴汤（YJT）可预防 PTU 诱导的甲状腺功能减退大鼠的体温过低、过度炎症和肠道微生物群失调。值得注意的是，这些特性与肠道微生物群的改变以及小肠和棕色脂肪组织（BAT）中体温调节和炎症介质之间的信号串扰有关。与治疗甲状腺功能减退症的常规药物 L-甲状腺素不同，YJT 具有减轻系统性炎症反应的功效，与肠道 TLR4 和 Nod2/Pglyrp1 信号通路相关的抑郁有关。我们的研究结果表明，YJT 可促进 BAT 产热并预防 PTU 诱导的甲状腺功能减退大鼠的全身炎症，这与其对肠道微生物群的益生菌作用以及与肠内分泌功能和先天免疫系统相关的基因表达有关。这些发现可能为以微生物群-肠道-BAT 轴为中心的医学范式转变提供更有力的依据。
