| Aim and Meaning:Bronchial asthma is a complex chronic inflammatory disease of airway tract,and characterized by airway hyper-responsiveness, infiltration of inflammatory cells and airway remodeling, all of that are inducted by specific or non-specific stimulators. No matter what kind or what stage of asthma are represented with infiltration and recruitment of various inflammatory cells such as mast cells, eosinophils and T-cells. It is known that there are a great deal of mast cells infiltrating in airway smooth muscle(ASM)of asthma patients and these cells present a state of degranulation. Activation of mast cells plays a critical role in the nosogenesis and development of asthma. Activated mast cells release various inflammatory mediators such as tryptase, chymase, histamine, heparin and so on. These mediators could cause pathologic and pathophysiologic changes of asthma through target molecules, target cells and target tissue. Tryptase which is specifically in mast cells is the marker of mast cells-degranulation, and it could increase airway responsiveness, promote inflammatory cells recruit and stimulate various cells multiplication, so it has become a hotspot on asthma study.Zanthoxylum seed oil(ZSO)has been used for treating asthma for a long time and has prominent curative effect, but its mechanism of action remains to be unclear. The aim of the study is trying to reveal the mechanism of ZSO preventing and treating asthma, to provide experimental supports for exploring motherland medicine treasure and Chinese medicine theory and to establish a new approach for preventing and curing asthma through the relation between mast cells and onset of asthma by modern molecule biology theory, so to make contribution to promote Chinese medicine development into the world.Methods:All animals were randomly divided into 4 groups: normal control group, asthmatic model group, dexamethasone treatment group and ZSO treatment group, and each group had 9 guinea pigs. Asthmatic models in guinea pigs were constructed by immunization of intraperitoneal injection with ovalbumin(OVA) and challenge of inspiration with nebulized OVA. Mast cells were observed under a microscope and tryptase levels were measured by antibody against the tryptase with UniCAP 100 system. Results:The numbers of mast cells and the percentage of degranulation of mast cells in the lung tissue and the plasmic levels of tryptase of asthmatic model group in guinea pigs [(14.87±4.67),(42.85±5.99)%and(119.78±12.50)] were significantly higher than those of normal control group[(2.38±0.52),(24.91±9.79)%and(88.78±4.74)] (P<0.01). While the above indices in the ZSO group [(6.38±1.06),( 25.44±8.21 ) % and ( 93.22±6.40 ) ] and dexamethasone group[(6.63±1.41),(25.33±6.14)%and(92.10±7.11)]were significantly lower than those of the asthmatic model group(P<0.01). There was no statistical significance in the above indices between ZSO group and dexamethasone group(P>0.05).Conclusion:ZSO could efficiently decrease the number of mast cells in the lung tissue and inhibit degranulation of mast cells and release of tryptase in asthmatic guinea pigs, so it could effectively treat asthma. |
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