Effect of Vitamin D on the Proliferation and Barrier of Atrophic Vaginal Epithelial Cells.

Atrophic vaginitis is very common in postmenopausal women due to declining estrogen levels. Vitamin D plays an important role in promoting epithelial cell proliferation, migration and adhesion. We established a rat model of ovariectomy (OVX) induced atrophic vaginitis with the aim of investigating the effects of Vitamin D supplementation on the vaginal epithelial barrier. The results showed that ovariectomised rats had significantly higher vaginal pH, reduced Lactobacillus, significantly lower uterine and vaginal weights, and lower vaginal epithelial PCNA, occludin, and E-cadherin mRNA expression compared with sham-operated rats. Vitamin D supplementation could reduce the vaginal pH, promote the proliferation and keratinization of vaginal epithelial cells, enhance the expression of PCNA mRNA in vaginal tissues, and improve the vaginal and uterine atrophy. Vitamin D can also increase the expression of E-cadherin and occludin proteins in vaginal tissues, maintain the integrity of the vaginal epithelium, increase the number of Lactobacillus, and reduce pathogenic bacterial infections. In vitro experiments demonstrated that 1,25(OH)2D3 could promote the proliferation and migration of VK2/E6E7 vaginal epithelial cells and increase the expression of E-cadherin protein. In conclusion, we demonstrated that Vitamin D can regulate the expression of vaginal epithelial tight junction proteins, promotes cell proliferation, and improves vaginal atrophy due to estrogen deficiency.

Identification of kaempferol as an OSX upregulator by network pharmacology-based analysis of qianggu Capsule for osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic disease of skeleton with reduced bone density and weaker bone. Qianggu Capsule as a traditional chinese medicine has been widely used to treat osteoporosis. The potential pharmacological mechanism of its active ingredient Gusuibu is not well understood. The purpose of this work is to analyze the anti-osteoporosis function of Gusuibu based on network pharmacology, and further explore the potential mechanism of Qianggu Capsule. The active compounds and their corresponding targets of Gusuibu were obtained from TCMSP, TCMID, and BATMAN-TCM databases. Potential therapeutic targets for osteoporosis were obtained through DisGeNET, TTD, GeneCards, MalaCards, CTD, and OMIM databases. The overlapping targets of Gusuibu and osteoporosis were obtained. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed. The "Gusuibu-active compounds-target genes-osteoporosis" network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed, and the top hub genes were screened by using the plug-in CytoHubba. Molecular docking was used to verify the binding activity of hub genes and key compounds. We identified 21 active compounds and 140 potential therapeutic targets that may be related to Gusuibu and 10 hub genes (AKT1, IL6, JUN, TNF, MAPK3, VEGFA, EGFR, MAPK1, CASP3, PTGS2). Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that four key active small molecules in Gusuibu (including Luteolin, Naringenin, Kaempferol, and Beta-sitosterol) have excellent binding affinity to the target proteins encoded by the top 10 hub genes. Our new findings indicated that one key active compound kaempferol activated the expression of osteoblast specific transcription factor OSX through JNK kinase pathway.

Harmine suppresses the proliferation and migration of human ovarian cancer cells through inhibiting ERK/CREB pathway.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynaecological cancer and the sixth most common cause of cancer related death among Western women. Recent studies show that harmine, a small-molecular ß-carboline alkaloid present in medicinal plants, displayed obvious anticancer effects in several cancer cells. However, the effect of harmine on ovarian cancer is not well understood. In the present study, the effect of harmine on the cell proliferation and migration of ovarian cancer SKOV-3 cells and the underlying mechanism were investigated. Our results indicated that harmine significantly suppressed the proliferation of SKOV-3 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, it also inhibited the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced proliferation of SKOV-3 cells. Moreover, the migration of SKOV-3 cells was markedly inhibited by harmine treatment. Further study showed that harmine inhibited not only the basal phosphorylation level of extra-cellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein (CREB) but also EGF-induced ERK1/2 and CREB phosphorylation. Finally, harmine significantly suppressed the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family MMP-2, and MMP-9. In conclusion, our data revealed that harmine inhibited the proliferation and migration of SKOV-3 cells, which might be mediated by ERK/CREB pathway. These findings elucidate that harmine may act as a potential therapeutic drug for ovarian cancer treatment.

Experimental research on the in vitro antitumor effects of Crataegus sanguinea.

Crataegus sanguinea is a wild plant, which has been widely grown in the north and south of the Tianshan mountains in Xinjiang. In order to explore their anti-cancer properties, edible wild plants from Xinjiang have been tested for their antitumor properties. We used Ames tests, mouse bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes micronucleus tests, and tumor cells cultured in vitro to study the anti-mutagenic and anti-tumor effects of C. sanguinea extract. We have shown that C. sanguinea has anti-mutagenic effect, but no mutagenicity. Cell culture in vitro experiments show that there is no inhibition of growth or increase in cell death on normal mouse fibroblasts, but a stronger inhibition of cell growth and an increase in cell death of Hep-2 and MGC-803 tumor cells. The results of this study illustrate that C. sanguinea extract has both anti-mutagenic and anti-tumor effects.