New Pharmacological Effect Of Jianpi Huoxue Decoction

This study was performed by a team led by Professor Hu, from the Institute of Liver Diseases, Shuguang Hospital, affiliated with the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

This study confirmed one of the possible mechanisms of JHD on alcoholic liver injury, that it inhibits some targets in LPS-activated Kupffer cell signal pathway, such as the specific molecular marker of macrophage, CD68, phosphorylated inhibit- kappaB (p-I kappaB) protein expression, the endotoxin receptor and toll-like receptor (TLR2) mRNA expression.

JHD has proven to be effective in suppressing alcoholic liver and intestinal injury induced by the Lieber-Decarli liquid diet in rats. It has also proven to be effective in suppressing the concentration of LPS in plasma. Study has demonstrated the inhibitory effect of JHD on LPS-induced cytokine secretion pathway, but the relationship between endotoxin receptors and LPS should be investigated in more detail. Such research would contribute to further observing the effect of JHD on endotoxin receptors.

The "two-hits" theory brought great advances in pathogenesis research of alcoholic liver injury (ALD). At present, most attention is focused on the mechanism of the endotoxin or LPS signal pathway involved in ALD. The function of Kupffer cells and their cytokine secretion pathway when exposed to LPS has become the hotspot of this field. This research might provide a new effective method for alcoholic liver injury prevention and treatment.