The protective effects of Fuzhengzhiyanghefuzhiyang decoction (FZHFZY) on imiquimod-induced psoriasis in mice through suppression of P38/Erk/NF-κB signaling

Abstract

\n Background\n\nPsoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease affecting approximately 2–3% of world s population. Fuzhenghefuzhiyang decoction (FZHFZY), a Chinese medicine formula created by Prof. Lu Chuanjian, has been shown to have remarkable anti-psoriasis effect in clinical practice. However, the mechanism of action of FZHFZY is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of FZHFZY in psoriasis-like skin inflammation both in vitro and in vivo and elucidate the mechanism of action of FZHFZY.\nMethods\n\nIn vivo study, we evaluated the protective effect of FZHFZY in imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like mice model. Results indicated that FZHFZY can obviously decrease psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores. FZHFZY also suppressed the mRNA levels of IL-6, TNF-α, IL-23 and IL-8 in the skin and its anti-inflammatory activity may be related to its suppression of the P38/Erk/NF-κB signaling. In addition, immunohistochemistry (IHC) data showed that FZHFZY can suppress the expression of F4/80 which is the marker of macrophages in the psoriasis skin. Therefore, we designed to investigate the roles and underlying mechanisms of FZHFZY in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages in vitro.\nResults\n\nOur results revealed FZHFZY treatment could significantly inhibit inflammation by modulating the expression of mediators, such as IL-6, TNF-α, IL-23 and IL-8, which expression was increased remarkably in the activated RAW264.7 cells. Our results also showed that FZHFZY inhibited the P38/Erk/NF-κB signaling pathways in RAW264.7 cells induced by LPS.\nConclusions\n\nTaken together, our present study demonstrates that FZHFZY alleviated inflammatory response by suppressing the P38/Erk/NF-κB signaling in imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like mice model and LPS-stimulated RAW264.7.