Abstract
Background
Astragalus membranaceus from traditional Chinese herbal medicines previously showed
that it possesses a strong anti-inflammatory activity. The purpose of this study was
to elucidate the effect of astragalus on allergen-induced airway inflammation and
airway hyperresponsiveness and investigate its possible molecular mechanisms.
Methods
Female BALB/c mice sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) developed airway
inflammation. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was assessed for total and differential
cell counts and cytokine and chemokine levels. In vivo airway responsiveness to increasing concentrations of methacholine was measured 24
hours after the last OVA challenge using whole-body plethysmography. The expression
of inhibitory κB-α and p65 in lung tissues was measured by Western blotting.
Results
Astragalus extract attenuated lung inflammation, goblet cell hyperplasia and airway
hyperresponsiveness in OVA-induced asthma and decreased eosinophils and lymphocytes
in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, astragalus extract treatment reduced
expression of the key initiators of allergic Th2-associated cytokines (interleukin 4, interleukin 5) (P<0.05). Furthermore, astragalus extract could inhibit nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) expression
and suppress NF-κB translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in lung tissue
samples.
Conclusions
Taken together, our current study demonstrated a potential therapeutic value of astragalus
extract in the treatment of asthma and it may act by inhibiting the expression of
the NF-κB pathway.
Key Indexing Terms
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
September 19,
2012
Received:
June 19,
2012
Footnotes
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of the Shandong Province (No. Y2007C113) and Science and Technique Foundation of the Shandong Province (No. 2010GWZ20216).
Disclosure: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
