Preliminary Exploration on Anti-Fibrosis Effect of Kaempferol in Mice with Schistosoma Japonicum Infection

Abstract

This study is to explore the effectiveness and mechanism of kaempferol on treatment of hepatic fibrosis induced by schistosoma egg. Thirty-six healthy male balb/c mice were randomly divided into 6 groups, including negative group, positive group, and 4 different dosages of kaempferol treatment groups. Each mouse was infected with 20 schistosoma Cercariae japonicum, except the ones in the negative group. Four weeks later, every infected mouse was administrated with 500mg/kg/day praziquantel for 2 days, and all kaempferol groups were followed by a 4-week administration of kaempferol with 5, 10, 15 and 20mg/kg/day respectively, while both control groups were administrated with normal saline. AH the mice were sacrificed on the 59th day after infection. The liver tissues were taken for Masson staining to detect collagen and real-time quantitative PCR to detect the mRNA expression of IL-13, collagen 1 and MMP-2. As a result, Masson stain showed that the optical density of the interested region in the positive group was significantly higher than that in the negative group (P<0.01), and the optical density in all kaempferol groups was significantly lower than that in the positive group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Real-time PCR showed that the mRNA expression of IL-13 in the positive group was significantly higher than that in the negative group (P<0.01), and the expression of IL-13 in the 20mg/kg and 15mg/kg kaempferol groups was significantly lower than that in the positive group, respectively (P<0.05). The mRNA expression of collagen 1 in the positive group was significantly higher than that in the negative group (P<0.01), and mRNA expression of collagen 1 in the 20mg/kg kaempferol group was significantly lower than that in the positive group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between the positive and negative groups on mRNA expression of MMP-2. The mRNA expression of MMP-2 in all kaempferol groups was significantly higher than that in the positive group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). In conclusion, kaempferol can ameliorate schistosoma egg-induced hepatic fibrosis via regulating the IL-13 signal pathway. Kaempferol is very likely to be an IL-13 targeted anti-fibrosis medicine.