Red ginseng aqueous extract improves mucociliary transport dysfunction and histopathology in CF rat airways

We previously discovered that Korean red ginseng aqueous extract (RGAE) potentiates the TMEM16A channel, improved mucociliary transport (MCT) parameters in CF nasal epithelia in vitro, and thus could serve as a therapeutic strategy to rescue the MCT defect in cystic fibrosis (CF) airways. The hypothesis of this study is that RGAE can improve epithelial Cl secretion, MCT, and histopathology in an in-vivo CF rat model. Seventeen 4-month old CFTR rats were randomly assigned to receive daily oral control (saline, n = 9) or RGAE (Ginsenosides 0.4mg/kg/daily, n = 8) for 4 weeks. Outcomes included nasal Cl secretion measured with the nasal potential difference (NPD), functional microanatomy of the trachea using micro-optical coherence tomography, histopathology, and immunohistochemical staining for TMEM16a. RGAE-treated CF rats had greater mean NPD polarization with UTP (control = -5.48 +/- 2.87 mV, RGAE = -9.49 +/- 2.99 mV, p