Manipulation of the gut-liver axis by interruption of bile acid recirculation: an option for the treatment of sclerosing cholangitis?

Roles of Chinese Medicine and Gut Microbiota in Chronic Constipation

Chronic constipation is a common gastrointestinal dysfunction, but its aetiology and pathogenesis are still unclear. Interestingly, the compositions of the gut microbiota in constipation patients and healthy controls are different. Various studies reported the different gut microbiota alterations in constipation patients, but most studies indicated that constipation patients showed the decreased beneficial bacteria and the reduced species richness of gut bacteria. Besides, the alterations in the gut microbiota may lead to constipation and constipation-related symptoms and the regulation of gut microbiota has a positive effect on gut functional diseases such as constipation. Microbial treatment methods, such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, can be used to regulate gut microbiota. Increasing evidences have suggested that Chinese medicine (CM) has a good therapeutic effect on chronic constipation. Chinese medicine is well known for its multitarget and multimode effects on diseases as well as less side effects. In previous studies, after the treatment of constipation with CM, the gut microbiota was restored, indicating that the gut microbiota might be the target or important way for CM to exert its efficacy. In this review, we summarized the effects of microbial treatment and CM on the gut microbiota of constipation patients and discussed the relationship between CM and gut microbiota.

A new perspective of triptolide-associated hepatotoxicity: Liver hypersensitivity upon LPS stimulation

OBJECTIVE

This study was designed to investigate whether the mice treated with triptolide (TP) could disrupt the liver immune homeostasis, resulting in the inability of the liver to eliminate the harmful response induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, we explored whether apoptosis and necroptosis played a critical role in the progression of the hepatotoxicity induced by TP-LPS co-treatment.

METHODS

Female C57BL/6 mice were continuously administrated with two different doses of TP (250 μg/kg and 500 μg/kg) intragastrically for 7 days. Subsequently, a single dose of LPS (0.1 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally to testify whether the liver possesses the normal immune function to detoxicate the exogenous pathogen's stimulation. To prove the involvement of apoptosis and necroptosis in the liver damage induced by TP-LPS co-treatment, apoptosis inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK (FMK) and necroptosis inhibitor necrostatin (Nec-1) were applied before the stimulation of LPS to diminish the apoptosis and necroptosis respectively.

RESULTS

TP or LPS alone did not induce significant liver damage. However, compared with TP or LPS treated mice, TP-LPS co-treatment mice showed obvious hepatotoxicity with a remarkable elevation of serum ALT and AST accompanied by abnormal bile acid metabolism, a depletion of liver glycogen storage, aberrant glucose metabolism, an up-regulation of inflammatory cell infiltration, and an increase of apoptosis and necroptosis. Intraperitoneal injection of FMK or Nec-1 could counteract the toxic reactions induced by TP-LPS co-treatment.

CONCLUSION

TP could disrupt the immune response, resulting in hypersensitivity of the liver upon LPS stimulation, ultimately leading to abnormal liver function and cell death. Additionally, apoptosis and necroptosis played a vital role in the development of liver damage induced by TP-LPS co-treatment.