Pingwei capsules improve gastrointestinal motility in rats with functional dyspepsia

Abstract OBJECTIVE To investigate the mechanism of Pingwei capsules (PWC) in improving gastrointestinal motility in rats with functional dyspepsia (FD). METHODS We established an FD model by stimulating semi-starvation rats via tail damping, provocation, and forced exercise fatigue. The FD model group was further divided into five groups according to the treatment received: normal saline, domperidone, low-dose PWC, mid-dose PWC, or high-dose PWC. The effect of PWC on FD rat was evaluated by measuring gastrointestinal motility. Changes of leptin and cholecystokinin (CCK) were detected through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS PWC significantly increased gastrointestinal motility in FD rats. Furthermore, PWC significantly increased CCK mRNA and protein concentrations in the duodenum and antrum, decreased leptin protein concentrations in the duodenum, antrum, and hypothalamus, and decreased CCK protein concentration in the hypothalamus. CONCLUSION PWC improve gastrointestinal motor function in FD rats by decreasing the leptin concentration in serum and the brain-gut axis, and by increasing the CCK concentration in gastrointestinal tissue. Our findings help to elucidate the mechanism of FD and provide further insight into the pharmacokinetics of PWC.