Effect of Sanguinarine on Active Capacity of Isolated Rat Uterine Smooth Muscle in vitro and Its Mechanism

The study was aimed to explore the effects of the sanguinarine on activity of isolated rat uterine smooth muscle in vitro. The effect of the sanguinarine on activity of the isolated myometrium of non-pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats eight weeks old was recorded by BL-420F four channels physiological recorder. Four antagonists, atropine sulfate, ranitidine hydrochloride, propranolol hydrochloride and diphenhydramine hydrochloride were used to study their mechanism, respectively. The results showed that sanguinarine and Yuan hu painkillers markedly inhibited the frequency, amplitude and activity of uterine contractions induced by oxytocin injection (P<0.05). The inhibitory effect of sanguinarine on uterine muscle contractions was blocked after using diphenhydramine hydrochloride (H₁-receptor antagonist) and ranitidine hydrochloride (H₂-receptor antagonist). However, after using atropine sulfate (M-receptor antagonist) and propranolol hydrochloride (β-receptor antagonist), sanguinarine also significantly inhibited the contractions of rat uterine smooth muscle (P<0.05). It was concluded that the effect of sanguinarine on activity of uterine smooth muscle in rats was mainly associated with H₁ receptor or H₂ receptor but not M receptor or β receptor.