Effect of intestinal mucosal immunity induced by transport stress and the regulation mechanism of Suanzaoren decoction

The present study investigated the effects of transport stress on intestinal mucosal immunity of laboratory rats and the potential regulation mechanism of Suanzaoren Decoction (SZRD). Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to 35°C and 60 revolutions per min (rpm) on a constant temperature shaker (2 hours/day) for 1, 2 or 3days. Physiological, biochemical, morphological and immunological analysis were conducted before and after treatment to evaluate stress response. Testing lymphocyte subsets from mesenteric lymph nodes with Flow cytometry method and determining Th cell cytokines level from jejunum with ELISA were to investigate the regulation of SZRD on immunity status intestinal mucosa. Western blot analysis for TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway was conducted to found the potential immunological mechanisms. According to our investigation, the mimicking transport treatment induced obvious stress responses with significant increases in serum corticosterone (CORT), serum glucose (GLU), creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels (P< 0.01), decreases in white blood cells and lymphocytes from Peripheral blood (P< 0.01), and severe injury of jejunum, especially in S3d group. SZRD helps to restore mesenteric lymphocyte subsets changes and Th cell cytokines elevation (p<0.05, p<0.01), to suppress activation of TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway caused by transport stress. So SZRD was helpful to maintain the body in equilibrium state.