Berberine reduces rat intestinal tight junction injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion associated with the suppression of inducible nitric oxide synthesis.

Abstract	Berberine (BBR) has been shown to attenuate the deleterious effects of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in the brain. We evaluated the effects of BBR on intestinal tight junction (TJ) changes during mesenteric I/R. I/R was induced in rats by the occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery and reperfusion. The rats were randomized into four groups: control, BBR, I/R, and I/R + BBR. Intestinal permeability was determined by the lactulose/mannitol test. The ileum and colon were harvested to assess mucosal injury and inducible nitric oxide synthase activity. The TJ ultrastructure was studied by transmission electron microscopy. The expressions and locations of the TJ proteins, occludin and ZO-1, in the epithelium were investigated by immunofluorescence microscopy. We also used Western blot analysis to detect the distribution of TJ proteins in lipid raft fractions. Our results suggest that I/R-induced intestinal TJ dysfunction can be improved by BBR, thereby demonstrating the therapeutic potential of BBR for intestinal I/R.
Authors	Lili Gu, Ning Li, Wenkui Yu, Jianfeng Gong, Qiurong Li, Weiming Zhu, Jieshou Li
Journal	The American journal of Chinese medicine (Am J Chin Med) Vol. 41 Issue 6 Pg. 1297-312 ( 2013) ISSN: 1793-6853 [Electronic] Singapore
PMID	24228602 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
Chemical References	Berberine Nitric Oxide Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II
Topics	Animals Berberine (pharmacology, therapeutic use) Disease Models, Animal Intestinal Diseases (drug therapy, etiology, metabolism, pathology) Intestinal Mucosa (metabolism) Male Membrane Microdomains (metabolism) Mesenteric Artery, Superior Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Transmission Microscopy, Fluorescence Nitric Oxide (biosynthesis) Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II (antagonists & inhibitors) Phytotherapy Rats Rats, Sprague-Dawley Reperfusion Injury (drug therapy, etiology, metabolism, pathology) Tight Junctions (metabolism, ultrastructure)

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