Articles
Vol. 70 No. 1 (2026)
Cryptotanshinone alleviates DSS-induced colitis in mouse by regulating the balance of Treg/Th17 cells and M1 macrophage activation
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Published: 19 February 2026
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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease has become a global disease in the 21st century, with increasing incidence rates in almost every industrialized country. Previous studies have suggested that the traditional Chinese medicine herb, cryptotanshinone (CTN), a major liposoluble extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza, alleviates the symptoms of experimental colitis in vitro and in vivo. However, the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of CTN against IBD remain exclusive. The present study found that CTN reversed lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in human colon epithelial cells (HIEC-6) by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway. In addition, CTN alleviated dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced inflammatory bowel disease in mice by regulating the balance of TH17/Treg cells. CTN also exerted its role by inhibiting the polarization of M1 macrophages in mice with DSS-induced colitis. Of note, the effects of CTN on these immune cells may be mediated via changes in the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 directly in mice. Taken together, these findings may provide new insight regarding the therapeutic potential of CTN for UC.
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Ethics Approval
The animal study protocols were performed according to the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of Bestcell (authorization no. 2025-08-06A)CRediT authorship contribution
Lin Liu, Wei Huang, overall study design, writing - original draft preparation. Yu Wu, Guanlong Yea, Jing Zhanga, Tong Shen, experiments, data collection and interpretation. Changjuan Ouyang study supervision, experiments design, writing - original draft contribution, all raw data authenticity confirmation. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
How to Cite
1.
Liu L, Huang W, Wu Y, Ye G, Zhang J, Shen T, et al. Cryptotanshinone alleviates DSS-induced colitis in mouse by regulating the balance of Treg/Th17 cells and M1 macrophage activation. Eur J Histochem [Internet]. 2026 Feb. 19 [cited 2026 Apr. 2];70(1). Available from: https://www.ejh.it/ejh/article/view/4436
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