Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2016; 22(34): 7778-7786
Published online Sep 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i34.7778
Effects of Lizhong Tang on gastrointestinal motility in mice
Min Cheol Lee, Wooram Ha, Jinhyeong Park, Junghoon Kim, Yunjin Jung, Byung Joo Kim
Min Cheol Lee, Byung Joo Kim, Division of Longevity and Biofunctional Medicine, Healthy Aging Korean Medical Research Center, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan 50612, South Korea
Wooram Ha, Jinhyeong Park, Junghoon Kim, Division of Pharmacology, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan 50612, South Korea
Yunjin Jung, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, South Korea
Author contributions: Lee MC and Kim BJ designed the research; Lee MC, Ha W, Park J and Kim J performed the experiments; Jung Y and Kim BJ analyzed the data; and Lee MC and Kim BJ wrote the paper.
Supported by National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korea Government, No. 2014R1A5A2009936.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: Animal care and experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of Pusan National University (Busan, Republic of Korea; Approval No. PNU-2015-1036) and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals from the National Institutes of Health.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Byung Joo Kim, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Longevity and Biofunctional Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Beomeori, Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnamdo, 50612, South Korea. vision@pusan.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-51-5108469 Fax: +82-51-5108420
Received: May 2, 2016
Peer-review started: May 2, 2016
First decision: May 27, 2016
Revised: June 7, 2016
Accepted: July 31, 2016
Article in press: August 1, 2016
Published online: September 14, 2016
Processing time: 128 Days and 19 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the effects of Lizhong Tang, a traditional Chinese medicine formula, on gastrointestinal motility in mice.

METHODS

The in vivo effects of Lizhong Tang on GI motility were investigated by measuring the intestinal transit rates (ITRs) and gastric emptying (GE) values in normal mice and in mice with experimentally induced GI motility dysfunction (GMD).

RESULTS

In normal ICR mice, the ITR and GE values were significantly and dose-dependently increased by Lizhong Tang (ITR values: 54.4% ± 1.9% vs 65.2% ± 1.8%, P < 0.01 with 0.1 g/kg Lizhong Tang and 54.4% ± 1.9% vs 83.8% ± 1.9%, P < 0.01 with 1 g/kg Lizhong Tang; GE values: 60.7% ± 1.9% vs 66.8% ± 2.1%, P < 0.05 with 0.1 g/kg Lizhong Tang and 60.7% ± 1.9% vs 72.5% ± 1.7%, P < 0.01 with 1 g/kg Lizhong Tang). The ITRs of the GMD mice were significantly reduced compared with those of the normal mice, which were significantly and dose-dependently reversed by Lizhong Tang. Additionally, in loperamide- and cisplatin-induced models of GE delay, Lizhong Tang administration reversed the GE deficits.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that Lizhong Tang may be a novel candidate for development as a prokinetic treatment for the GI tract.

Keywords: Lizhong Tang; Gastrointestinal disorders; Motility; Intestinal transit rate; Gastric emptying

Core tip: Lizhong Tang, a traditional Chinese medicinal formula, has been widely used in China, Japan, and South Korea for many years to ameliorate gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. Our data suggest that Lizhong Tang is a novel candidate for development as a prokinetic agent for treatment of GI motility dysfunctions in man.