Honokiol: A polyphenol neolignan ameliorates pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting TGF- β/Smad signaling, matrix proteins and IL-6/CD44/STAT3 axis both in vitro and in vivo.

This study has been conducted in TGF-β1 induced in vitro model and 21 day in vivo murine model of Bleomycin induced PF. The findings of our study suggest that HNK was able to inhibit fundamental pathways of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and TGF-β/Smad signaling both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, HNK also attenuated collagen deposition and inflammation associated with fibrosis. We also hypothesized that HNK interfered with IL-6/CD44/STAT3 axis. As hypothesized, HNK significantly mitigated IL-6/CD44/STAT3 axis both in vitro and in vivo as evident from outcomes of various protein expression studies like western blotting, immunohistochemistry and ELISA. Taken together, it can be concluded that HNK reversed pulmonary fibrotic changes in both in vitro and in vivo experimental models of PF and exerted anti-fibrotic effects majorly by attenuating EMT, TGF-β/Smad signaling and partly by inhibiting IL-6/CD44/STAT3 signaling axis. PMID: 32032644 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Toxicol Appl Pharmacol Source Type: research