Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 7, 2015; 21(5): 1444-1456
Published online Feb 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i5.1444
Mechanism involved in Danshen-induced fluid secretion in salivary glands
Fei Wei, Mu-Xin Wei, Masataka Murakami
Fei Wei, Division of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan
Mu-Xin Wei, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The first Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Masataka Murakami, Division of Cellular Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan
Author contributions: Wei F was involved in the whole experiment and in preparing the manuscript; Wei MX was involved in choosing the Danshen employed; Murakami M provided the experimental system, including reagents and analytical tools, and was also involved in the design of the whole experiment and editing the manuscript.
Supported by Grants from The National Institute for Physiological Sciences and Graduate University for Advanced Studies.
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: Masataka Murakami, Associate Professor, Division of Cellular Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 5-1 Higashiyama, Myoudaiji-cho, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan. masataka@nips.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-564-595268 Fax: +81-564-595269
Received: July 23, 2014
Peer-review started: July 24, 2014
First decision: September 15, 2014
Revised: September 29, 2014
Accepted: November 19, 2014
Article in press: November 19, 2014
Published online: February 7, 2015
Processing time: 201 Days and 0.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Perfusion of rat submandibular glands allowed for the measurement of fluid secretion and oxygen consumption during Danshen stimulation, which induced a large salivary fluid secretion. Ouabain (Na+/K+ ATPase inhibitor) and bumetanide (NKCC1 inhibitor), inhibited fluid secretion and oxygen consumption significantly, indicating that Danshen has a similar basic mechanism for secretion. Receptor blockers indicated that Danshen does not bind with M3 or α1 receptors. These findings suggest that the mechanism for Danshen-induced fluid secretion could be different from that induced by carbamylcholine. Accordingly, Danshen may avoid the systemic side effects caused by muscarinic drugs in the treatment of xerostomia.