Gastroprotective effects of Kangfuxin against water-immersion and restraint stress-induced gastric ulcer in rats: roles of antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and pro-survival

Abstract

Context: Kangfuxin (KFX) is widely used for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcer; however, more research is needed to determine the protective mechanisms of KFX in ameliorating gastric ulcer.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and potential mechanism of Kangfuxin liquid (KFX) in water-immersion and restraint stress (WIRS)-induced gastric ulcer.

Materials and methods: Seventy rats were randomly divided into seven groups (n = 10) as follows: the control group (normal saline, i.g.), the model group (normal saline, i.g.), the KFX groups (2.5, 5 and 10 mL/kg, i.g.), the omeprazole group (20 mg/kg, i.p.) and Sanjiuweitai Granules group (1850 mg/kg, i.g.). The WIRS model was applied to induce stress ulcers after 7 days of drug administration. Afterwards, rats were sacrificed at 10 h induced by WIRS.

Results: Pre-treatment with KFX (5,10 mL/kg) could effectively reduce the area of gastric ulcers and improve the pathological changes of ulcerated tissue. Moreover, KFX (5,10 mL/kg) increased the prostaglandin E2 (52%) and cyclooxygenase-1 (30%) levels, and improved malondialdehyde (54%), superoxide dismutase (58%), catalase (39%), and nitric oxide (11%) and TNF-α (9%), IL-6 (11%), MMP-9 (54%) and MMP-2 (53%) of ulcer tissue. Furthermore, pre-treatment with KFX dramatically increased IGF-1, PTEN, and Akt protein expression.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that KFX has protective effects on WIRS-induced gastric ulcer via inflammatory reactions, oxidative stress inhibition, and pro-survival action, which were the results of activating the IGF-1/PTEN/Akt signalling pathway. Our results provide evidence of KFX for treating gastric ulcer.

Keywords:

• Periplaneta americana L.
• gastric diseases
• IGF-1/PTEN/Akt signalling
• KFX

Authors’ contributions

Shan Lu and Guibo Sun performed the experiments and wrote the manuscript; Shan Lu analysed the data; Funeng Geng, Yongmei Shen and Jin Tan contributed materials tools; Yun Luo and Xiaobo Sun conceived and designed the experiments.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by PUMC Youth Fund and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant no. 2017350016], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant no. 81703745], CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) [Grant no. 2017-I2M-1-013].