Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2021; 27(32): 5392-5403
Published online Aug 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i32.5392
Therapeutic effect of Cistanche deserticola on defecation in senile constipation rat model through stem cell factor/C-kit signaling pathway
Xia Zhang, Fa-Juan Zheng, Zhen Zhang
Xia Zhang, Fa-Juan Zheng, Department of Science and Education, Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing 400021, China
Zhen Zhang, Department of Anorectal, Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing 400021, China
Author contributions: Zhang Z designed the study; Zhang X and Zhang Z wrote the manuscript and were involved in revision, editing and review; Zhang X reformatted the manuscript; Zheng FJ was involved in the animal experiment process and data collation and input; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, No. cstc2017jcyjAX0306.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Ethics Committee, No. Cstc2017jcyjAX0306.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at zhangzhen@cdutcm.edu.cn. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
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: Zhen Zhang, MD, Deputy Director, Department of Anorectal, Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 6 Seventh Branch of Panxi Road, Jiangbei District, Chongqing 400021, China. zhangzhen@cdutcm.edu.cn
Received: April 7, 2021
Peer-review started: April 7, 2021
First decision: May 27, 2021
Revised: June 3, 2021
Accepted: July 20, 2021
Article in press: July 20, 2021
Published online: August 28, 2021
Processing time: 139 Days and 10.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We studied a possible mechanism of Cistanche deserticola (C. deserticola) in the treatment of constipation. The mechanism might improve colon motility through stem cell factor (SCF)/C-kit signaling pathway in colon Cajal stromal cells. Therefore, the constipation rat model was replicated, and then rats were treated by direct administration of C. deserticola and specific blocking of the SCF/C-kit signaling pathway. The defecation of rats, changes of colonic pathology and ultrastructure as well as the protein expression related to the SCF/C-kit signaling pathway were observed. Our results support that the SCF/C-kit signaling pathway plays an important mechanism on the therapeutic effect of C. deserticola.