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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1540559
This article is part of the Research Topic New Targets and Strategies for the Prevention and Treatment of Organ Fibrosis, Volume III View all 10 articles
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits the collagen accumulation of oral submucous fibrosis induced by arecoline
Provisionally accepted- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Hankou, China
Objective: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic oral mucosal disease, which exerts a profound impact on patients' daily life and currently lacks efficacious therapeutic interventions. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the abundant polyphenol found in green tea, exhibits remarkable anti-fibrotic effects on the skin. However, the research on OSF regarding EGCG is relatively limited.We aimed to investigate the potential therapeutic effect of EGCG against OSF using an arecoline (ARE) -induced rat model and primary rat oral fibroblasts.: Primary rat oral mucosal fibroblasts (ROMF) were isolated and identified. Optimal ARE concentrations were established using the Cell Counting Kit-8. The impact of ARE on extracellular matrix (ECM)-related protein expression was assessed through RT-qPCR and Western blot techniques. Similarly, the effects of EGCG on ARE-induced ECM changes in ROMF were evaluated. The study also established an OSF model in Sprague-Dawley rats, induced by ARE, with pathological changes characterized using HE and Masson's staining, further assessing the impact of ARE on ECM-related protein expression in rat oral tissues through RT-qPCR and Western blot methods. Results: EGCG effectively suppressed the ARE-induced ECM components while concurrently improving the OSF pathological process in vitro and in vivo.The results indicate that the natural product EGCG effectively suppressed the increased ECM components induced by ARE and concurrently improved the OSF pathological process, indicating that EGCG could be potentially a novel anti-fibrotic drug for the treatment of OSF.
Keywords: EGCG, green tea, OSF, Arecoline, ECM
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, Lin, Li, Xie and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ge Gao, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Hankou, China
Hai-Bin Luo, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Hankou, China
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