The protective effect of berberine against lipopolysaccharide-induced abortion by modulation of inflammatory/immune responses

Abstract

Objective: Berberine is an isoquinoline derivative alkaloid with anti-inflammatory activity. In this study, we investigated the protective effects of berberine in prevention of LPS-induced abortion.

Materials and methods: On the gestation day (GD) 9.5, the pregnant mice were injected with low, medium, and high doses of berberine or with PBS. After 4 h, berberine or PBS-pretreated mice were injected with LPS. On GD 11.5, blood samples and uterine tissues were collected from treated mice and percentage of abortion and serum levels of NO, TNF-α, IL-10, and IL12p70 were measured by macroscopic examination and sandwich ELISA, respectively.

Results: Our findings show that mice injected with berberine were resistant to LPS-induced abortion. We also found that this treatment prevents the reduction of IL-10 and the enhancement of NO, TNF-α, and IL-12p70 in LPS-treated pregnant mice.

Conclusions: Taken together, our results suggest that berberine as an anti-inflammatory agent has protective effects on LPS-induced abortion by modulation of inflammatory/immune responses.

Keywords:

• Abortion
• berberine
• lipopolysaccharide
• nitric oxide

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of the Department of Pathobiology and Medical Laboratory Sciences, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran for their technical assistance.

Ethical approval

The experimental protocols that have been used in this research were approved by Animal Ethics Committee of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnord, Iran.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran [grant No. 95/P/967].