The protective effects of total phenols in magnolia officinalix rehd. et wils on gastrointestinal tract dysmotility is mainly based on its influence on interstitial cells of cajal.

Magnolia officinalix Rehd. et Wils is a kind of herb which is widely used for gastrointestinal tract mobility disorder in Asian countries. In this study, we investigated whether the total phenols of Magnolia officinalix Rehd. et Wils (TPM) treatment improves gastrointestinal tract dysmobility induced by intraperitoneal injection of atropine (5 mg/kg) in rats. Rats were randomly grouped into three units: TPM-pretreated/atropine-treated group, atropinetreated group and control group. TPM were administrated for 7 days. Gastric residual rate and intestinal transit were measured 20 min after atropine injected, and gastrointestinal hormones (including: gastrin (GAS), motilin (MTL), somatostatin (SS) and p substance (PS) levels in serum were also measured by ELISA kits. The number and distribution of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) in stomach were detected by immunohistochemistry analysis, while c-kit and stem cell factor (SCF) expressions in stomach were also measured by western blotting. We found that TPM pretreatment significantly improved atropine-induced gastric residual rate increase, while had no significantly effects on intestinal transit; it also significantly normalized GAS, MTL and PS serum levels. Atropine-induced ICCs numbers decreased in both sinuses ventriculi and body of stomach, which is improved by TPM pretreatment. Western blotting results showed the expressions of c-kit and SCF were down-regulated after atropine injection, which can be reversed with TPM pretreatment. These results above indicates that TPM treatment can significantly protected atropine-induced gastric dysmoblility, which may owed to its regulation on c-kit/SCF signing pathway.