Chen QC, Jiang Z, Zhang JH, Cao LX, Chen ZQ. Xiangbinfang granules enhance gastric antrum motility via intramuscular interstitial cells of Cajal in mice. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(7): 576-591 [PMID: 33642830 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i7.576]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhi-Qiang Chen, MD, Professor, The Research Team of TCM Applications of Perioperative, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 111 Dade Road, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. wssq@gzucm.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Qi-Cheng Chen, Zhi Jiang, Li-Xing Cao, Zhi-Qiang Chen, The Research Team of TCM Applications of Perioperative, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Jun-Hong Zhang, Department of Research Public Service Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Chen QC, Cao LX and Chen ZQ designed the research study; Chen QC, Jiang Z and Zhang JH performed the research; Chen QC analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported byThe Specific Research Fund for TCM Science and Technology of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, No. YN10101902; and the National Regional Traditional Chinese Medicine (Specialist) Clinic Construction, No. (2018)205.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Ethics Committee of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (approval No. 2018003).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal procedures were conducted according to the Regulations for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in this study.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author at wssq@gzucm.edu.cn.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Qiang Chen, MD, Professor, The Research Team of TCM Applications of Perioperative, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 111 Dade Road, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. wssq@gzucm.edu.cn
Received: October 27, 2020 Peer-review started: October 27, 2020 First decision: December 13, 2020 Revised: December 24, 2020 Accepted: January 13, 2021 Article in press: January 13, 2021 Published online: February 21, 2021 Processing time: 116 Days and 1.1 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
The Chinese medicine Xiangbinfang granule (XBF) is an effective prescribed treatment for promoting the recovery of gastrointestinal (GI) function post-surgery. In previous studies, we found that XBF mediated the phase III contraction of migrating motor complexes (MMC). However, the mechanism of XBF in enhancing MMC activity in the GI tract is still unclear.
Research motivation
In this study, we observed the MMC activity of gastric antrum in W/Wv mice that lack intramuscular interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC-IM) and analyzed the effect of the traditional Chinese medicine XBF in promoting gastric antrum movement. From this study, we will further understand the role of ICC-IM in MMC activities. Meanwhile, the mechanism of XBF promoting gastrointestinal motility through ICC-IM was discussed, so as to provide the basis for the development and application of XBF.
Research objectives
W/Wv mice were used to observe the effects of ICC-IM on gastric antrum motility and to establish the mechanism of XBF in promoting gastric antrum motility. We further investigated the correlation between ICC-IM and MMC in mouse gastric antrum.
Research methods
The density of c-kit positive ICC myenteric plexus and ICC-IM in the antral muscularis of W/Wv and wild-type (WT) mice was examined by confocal microscopy. The effects of XBF on the gastric antrum slow waves in W/Wv and WT mice were recorded by intracellular amplification recording. The micro-strain-gauge force transducers were implanted into the gastric antrum to monitor the MMC and the effect of XBF on gastric antrum motility in conscious W/Wv and WT mice.
Research results
In the gastric antrum of W/Wv mice, no ICC-IM network was observed. Spontaneous rhythmic slow waves with the low amplitude also appeared in the antrum of W/Wv mice. In this study, we found that the duration of MMC phase III was 151.08 ± 8.87 s, the amplitude was 315.45 ± 5.55 mg, and the interval between MMCs was 10.75 ± 0.61 min in the gastric antrum of WT mice. There was no complete MMC cycle in W/Wv gastric antrum lacking ICC-IM. The gastric antrum motility in WT and W/Wv antrum was significantly increased after treatment with XBF. Atropine blocked the enhancement of XBF completely, while tetrodotoxin partially inhibited the enhancement of XBF.
Research conclusions
In this study, we first examined the gastrointestinal motility of W-mutant mice by an extraluminal strain-gauge force transducer method. It showed that ICC-IM plays an important role in the regulation of gastric antrum MMC.
Research perspectives
In this study, MMC were recorded only at a single site in the gastric antrum. It was impossible to describe the propulsion of gastrointestinal movement. Therefore, recording at multiple gastrointestinal sites is important to further clarify the motility of gastrointestinal MMC in mice.
