Chaihu-Shugan-San (CSS), an alternative treatment for gastrointestinal diseases, inhibits digestive tract pacemaker potentials via nitric oxide and ATP-sensitive K channel dependent pathways.
The researchers used electrophysiological methods to examine the effects of CSS on pacemaker potentials in cultured interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) from the mouse small intestine. They investigated gastrointestinal motility by measuring intestinal transit rates. CSS showed inhibitory behavior on the pacemaker potentials in a dose-dependent manner. Notably, this effect was not blocked by capsazepine, but the influence of CSS was interrupted by glibenclamide and N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, indicating a specific set of pathways through which CSS operates.
The study's results showed that CSS significantly suppressed murine intestinal transit rate enhancements caused by neostigmine in vivo. They conclude that CSS works through nitric oxide/cGMP and ATP-sensitive K channel dependent, and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 channel independent pathways to inhibit the pacemaker potentials of ICCs. The pretreatments tested, SQ-22536 or KT-5720, did not suppress the effects of CSS. However, pretreatments with ODQ or KT-5823 did put a halt on CSS's effects. These findings illustrate that CSS could provide foundational knowledge for creating new treatments for gastrointestinal motility disorders.
