Protection Against Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Mice By Neferine, A Natural Product From Nelumbo Nucifera Gaertn

Objective: ulcerative colitis (uc) is a long-lasting inflammatory disease of the colon. epidemiological studies showed that the prevalence and incidence of uc are increasing worldwide in recent years. neferine is a natural alkaloid isolated from nelumbo nucifera gaertn that exerts a variety of biological activities. this study was designed to evaluate the protective effect of neferine on dextran sulfate sodium (dss)-induced experimental uc in mice. materials and methods: in this experimental study, 4% dss was used to induce a mice model of uc. neferine (5 and 10 mg/kg) was administered by intraperitoneal injection (ip). clinical symptoms and disease activity index (dai) scores were recorded and calculated. pathological changes of colon tissues were detected by hematoxylin and eosin (h&e) staining. the levels of inflammatory mediators were detected by elisa kits. western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis were used for the evaluation of protein expressions. results: neferine treatment significantly alleviated dss-induced uc by inhibiting weight loss, decreasing dai scores, and alleviating the pathological changes in colon tissues. furthermore, neferine significantly decreased serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (tnf-α), interleukin-1 beta (il-1β), and il-6 and increased serum levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine il-10. the increased myeloperoxidase (mpo) activity and nitric oxide (no) in colon tissues were also inhibited. in addition, neferine significantly down-regulated inducible no synthase (inos), cyclooxygenase-2 (cox-2), and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (icam-1) expression in colon tissues. conclusion: these results provided evidence that neferine could protect against dss-induced uc symptoms in an experimental mice model. this effect might be mediated through inhibition of inflammation.