Mechanism of Tibetan medicine Ershiwuwei Songshi Pills in regulating intestinal flora and improving non-alcoholic steatohepatitis / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Tibetan medicine Ershiwuwei Songshi Pills(ESP) on the intestinal flora of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) mice. Forty-eight male C57 BL/6 mice were randomly divided into the control group, model(methionine-choline-deficient, MCD) group, high-(0.8 g·kg~(-1)), medium-(0.4 g·kg~(-1)), and low-dose(0.2 g·kg~(-1)) ESP groups, and pioglitazone(PGZ, 10 mg·kg~(-1)) group, with eight mice in each group. Mice in the control group were fed with normal diet, while those in the remaining five groups with MCD diet for five weeks for inducing NASH. During modeling, they were gavaged with the corresponding drugs. The changes in body mass, daily water intake, and daily food intake were recorded. At the end of the experiment, the liver tissues were collected and stained with hematoxylin-eosin(HE) for observing the pathological changes, followed by oil red O staining for observing fat accumulation in the liver. The levels of serum aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) and triglyceride(TG) in liver tissue were measured. The changes in intestinal flora of mice were determined using 16 S rRNA high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that compared with the model group, the high-, medium-and low-dose ESP groups and the PGZ group exhibited significantly lowered AST and ALT in serum and TG in liver tissues and alleviated hepatocellular steatosis and fat accumulation in the liver. As demonstrated by 16 S rRNA sequencing, the abundance index and diversity of intestinal flora decreased in the model group, while those increased in the ESP groups. Besides, the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio decreased at the phylum level. In the alteration of the composition of intestinal flora, ESP reduced the abundance of Erysipelotrichia and Faecalibaculum but increased the abundance of Desulfovibrionaceae, Rikenellaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Ruminococcaceae. This study has revealed that ESP has a protective effect against NASH induced by MCD diet, which may be related to its regulation of the changes in intestinal flora, alteration of the composition of intestinal flora, and inhibition of the intestinal dysbiosis.