Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (11): 4817-4826.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.11.035

• CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Echinacea purpurea Extract Combined with Sulfasalazine on Immune Imbalance of Th17/Treg in Rats with Damp-Heat Syndrome

CHI Xingzi1, LI Yaoxing1, WANG Huiting1, YAN Ming’en1, YANG Shijing1, YANG Bowen1, SUN Han1, GUO Shining1,2, SHI Dayou1,2, WU Li1,2, LIU Cui1,2*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;
    2. Guangdong Technology Research Center for Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine and Nature Medicine, Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Received:2022-11-18 Online:2023-11-23 Published:2023-11-26

Abstract: In this study, Echinacea purpurea extract and sulfasalazine were used to treat intestine damp-heat syndrome rats, to explore the efficacy of integrated traditional Chinese and Western Medicine on Intestine Damp-heat syndrome rats, and to provide scientific basis for the treatment of Intestine Damp-heat syndrome diseases. The rats were randomly divided into 5 groups. Except the control group, the rest of the rats were treated with "internal and external Damp-heat + Escherichia coli" to establish Damp-heat syndrome rat model. Then Echinacea purpurea extract group, sulfasalazine group and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine group were given 1 g·kg-1 Echinacea purpurea extract, 0.1 g·kg-1 sulfasalazine, 1 g·kg-1 Echinacea purpurea extract and 0.1 g·kg-1 sulfasalazine, respectively. The disease model was evaluated by clinical symptom score. The serum inflammatory factors and the proportion of Th17/Treg cells in PBMCs were measured. The results showed that after modeling, the rats had poor spirit, decreased dietary intake, reduced amount of exercise, rough and yellowish hair, and excreted yellowish brown soft stool. After 6 days of administration, the spirit, dietary intake and appearance of rats in Echinacea purpurea extract group, sulfasalazine group and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine group returned to normal. Compared with the control group, the levels of IL-17 and IL-23 in serum in the model group were significantly higher (P<0.05), and the level of TGF-β, IL-10 in serum decreased significantly (P<0.05). In PBMCs of model group, the proportion of Th17 cells increased significantly (P<0.05), the proportion of Treg cells decreased significantly (P<0.05), and the proportion of Th17/Treg increased significantly (P<0.05) compared with the control group. Compared with the model group, the levels of IL-17 and IL-23 in serum in Echinacea purpurea extract group and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine group were significantly lower (P<0.05), and the levels of TGF-β in serum increased significantly (P<0.05). The proportion of Th17 cells decreased significantly (P<0.05), the proportion of Treg cells increased significantly (P<0.05), and the proportion of Th17/Treg decreased significantly (P<0.05). In conclusion, Echinacea purpurea extract combined with sulfasalazine can reduce the unbalanced Th17/Treg ratio in Intestine Damp-heat syndrome model rats by regulating related cytokines, so as to alleviate Intestine Damp-heat syndrome in rats.

Key words: Echinacea purpurea extract, intestine damp-heat syndrome, Th17/Treg

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