Gardeniajasminoides protects against cerulein-induced acute pancreatitis

AIM： To investigate the effect of Garden/a fasm/noides （GJ） on cerulein-induced acute pancreatitis （AP） in mice. METHODS： C57BL/6 mice weighing 18-20 g were divided into three groups. （1） Normal salinetreated group, （2） treatment with GJ at a dose of 0.1 g/kg, （3） treatment with GJ at a dose of 1 g/kg. GJ was administered orally （n = 6 per group） for 1 wk. Three hours later, the mice were given anintraperitoneal injection of cerulein （50 μg/kg）, a stable cholecystokinin （CCK） analogue, every hour for a total of 6h as described previously. The mice were sacrificed at 6 h after completion of cerulein injections. Blood samples were obtained to determine serum amylase, lipase and cytokine levels. The pancreas was rapidly removed for morphologic examination and scoring. A portion of pancreas was stored at -70℃ and prepared for the measurement of tissue myeloperoxidase （MPO） activity, an indicator of neutrophil sequestration, and for reverse-transcriptase PCR （RT-PCR） and real-time PCR measurements. RESULTS： Treatment with G.1 decreased significantly the severity of pancreatitis and pancreatitis-associated lung injury. Treatment with G.1 attenuated the severity of AP compared with saline-treated mice, as shown by reduction in pancreatic edema, neutrophil infiltration, serum amylase and lipase levels, serum cytokine levels, and mRNA expression of multiple inflammatory mediators. CONCLUSION： These results suggest that GJ attenuated the severity of AP as well as pancreatitisassociated lung injury.