Research Paper

Rhizoma alismatis polypeptide treats inflammatory bowel disease in mice by regulating immune balance

Zhongmei He¹, Tianyuan Liu¹, Rui Du¹, Xiaowei Dai², Honyan Pei¹, Qiaobing Guan³, Shuiliang Ruan³, Shasha Wu³

¹College of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China
²The Second Norman Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130118, China
³The Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314001, China

Received: September 4, 2023Accepted: November 7, 2023

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205344

Copyright: © 2023 He et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Aim: We isolated and identified RAP1, an active polypeptide in Rhizoma Alismatis, and investigated its anti-inflammatory mechanism.

Methods: Chronic colitis was induced in mice by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). After RAP1 intervention, the life status, body weight and pathological score of mice were measured. The proportions of regulatory T cells (Treg), helper T cells 1 and 17 (Th1 and Th17) in mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen were determined by flow cytometry (FCM). Cytokine levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and protein expressions were assayed by Western-Blotting.

Results: RAP1 improved the immune balance, increased the proportion of Tregs, while decreased the proportions of Th1 and Th7 cells. Meanwhile, it could lower the levels of inflammatory cytokines, ameliorate the chronic colitis and reduce the tissue inflammation and permeability.

Conclusions: RAP1 can inhibit tissue inflammation in chronic colitis by regulating intestinal immune balance, which is one of its mechanisms.