To investigate anti-arthritic effects of matrine isolated from the roots of S. flavescens on type II collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in rats and to explore its related potential mechanisms, CIA rats were established and administered with matrine (20, 40 or 80 mg/kg/days, for 30 days). Subsequently, blood was collected to determine serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17A, IL-10, MMP-2,...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematological malignancy characterized by a rapid increase in the number of immature myeloid cells in bone marrow. Despite recent advances in the treatment, AML remains an incurable disease. Matrine, a major component extracted from Sophora flavescens Ait, has been demonstrated to exert anticancer effects on various cancer cell lines. However, the effects of ma...

Objective: To investigate the effects of matrine on the proliferation and apoptosis of RPMI 8226 cells in vitro. Methods: RPMI 8226 cells were cultured in vitro, in the presence of different concentrations of matrine. The effect of matrine at different concentrations on the proliferation and apoptotic rate of RPMI 8226 cells was detected by MTT assay and flow cytometry. The mRNA expression of c...

The effect of matrine on cold ischemia and reperfusion injury of sinusoidal endothelial cells (SEC) was investigated in rats using an orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) model. Syngeneic Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups of 32 rats: untreated group (controls), low-dose treated group, high-dose treated group, and sham operation group (normals). After 5 hr of preserva...

The BCR/ABL fusion gene and its downstream signaling pathways such as Ras/Raf/MAPK, JAK/STAT3, and PI3K/AKT pathways play important roles in malignant transformation of leukemia, especially chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Our previous study showed that matrine, an alkaloid extracted from a Chinese herb radix sophorae, significantly inhibited the proliferation of human CML K562cells, induced...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to investigate the cardioprotective effects of matrine on regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) in isoproterenol-induced acute myocardial ischaemic rats. METHODS Male Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with matrine (200, 100 and 50 mg/kg) orally for 10 days. Acute myocardial injury was induced in rats ...

Our present study aimed to determine the antiepileptic activity of matrine, and explore the possible molecular mechanism. To evaluate the antiepileptic activity of matrine, seizures in mice induced by PTZ and MES were established, then the pentobarbital sodium-induced anaesthetizing time and locomotor activity tests in mice were also carried out. For the molecular mechanism investigations, cont...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether matrine, a kind of traditional Chinese medicinal alkaloid, can relax the aortic smooth muscles isolated from guinea pigs and to investigate the mechanism of its relaxant effects. METHODS Phenylephrine or potassium chloride concentration-dependent relaxation response of aortic smooth muscles to matrine was studied in the precontracted guinea pigs. RESULTS Matri...

OBJECTIVES Evaluation of the Sophora alopecuroides var. alopecuroides seed effects on morphine withdrawal syndrome in mice and determination of the alkaloid composition of the seed total extract. MATERIALS AND METHODS The effects of the seed total extract, alkaloid fraction and major compound matrine on the mice morphine withdrawal syndrome were compared to saline and methadone. Mice were mad...

Matrine is one of the main active components that is extracted from the dry roots of Sophora flavescens. The compound has potent antitumor activity in various cancer cell lines. However, the anticancer activity of matrine in colon cancer cells remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of matrine on the growth of human colon cancer cells and the expression ...