Department of Infectious Diseases, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110000, China.
Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang 110000, China.
Chin J Nat Med. 2023 Sep;21(9):643-657. doi: 10.1016/S1875-5364(23)60443-1.
Liver fibrosis is a pathological condition characterized by replacement of normal liver tissue with scar tissue, and also the leading cause of liver-related death worldwide. During the treatment of liver fibrosis, in addition to antiviral therapy or removal of inducers, there remains a lack of specific and effective treatment strategies. For thousands of years, Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have been widely used to treat liver fibrosis in clinical setting. CHMs are effective for liver fibrosis, though its mechanisms of action are unclear. In recent years, many studies have attempted to determine the possible mechanisms of action of CHMs in treating liver fibrosis. There have been substantial improvements in the experimental investigation of CHMs which have greatly promoted the understanding of anti-liver fibrosis mechanisms. In this review, the role of CHMs in the treatment of liver fibrosis is described, based on studies over the past decade, which has addressed the various mechanisms and signaling pathways that mediate therapeutic efficacy. Among them, inhibition of stellate cell activation is identified as the most common mechanism. This article provides insights into the research direction of CHMs, in order to expand its clinical application range and improve its effectiveness.
肝纤维化是一种以正常肝组织被疤痕组织取代为特征的病理状态，也是全球范围内导致肝脏相关死亡的主要原因。在肝纤维化的治疗中，除了抗病毒治疗或去除诱导剂外，仍然缺乏特异性和有效的治疗策略。几千年来，中草药（CHMs）在临床实践中被广泛用于治疗肝纤维化。CHMs 对肝纤维化有效，但作用机制尚不清楚。近年来，许多研究试图确定 CHMs 治疗肝纤维化的可能作用机制。CHMs 的实验研究取得了实质性进展，极大地促进了对抗肝纤维化机制的理解。在这篇综述中，根据过去十年的研究，描述了 CHMs 在治疗肝纤维化中的作用，探讨了介导治疗效果的各种机制和信号通路。其中，抑制星状细胞激活被认为是最常见的机制。本文为 CHMs 的研究方向提供了一些见解，以期扩大其临床应用范围并提高其疗效。
