| Abstract: | Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease of the airway; the incidence and prevalence of asthma remain high worldwide. Astragaloside IV (AS‐IV) is the main active constituent of Astragalus membranaceus. Accumulating evidence suggests that AS‐IV possesses anti‐inflammatory and anti‐asthmatic ability, but the potential molecular mechanism is required to further clarify. In this study, the anti‐asthmatic effects of AS‐IV on mice with ovalbumin (OVA)‐induced allergic inflammation were analysed. We analysed airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), numbers of inflammatory cells, inflammation situation in lung tissue and cytokines level in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) between OVA‐induced mice with and without AS‐IV treatment. Moreover, we explored the possible signalling pathway behind the anti‐asthmatic effects. Our results revealed that AS‐IV treatment ameliorates airway inflammation and AHR in an OVA‐induced asthma model. Besides, AS‐IV treatment inhibits the interleukin (IL)‐4, ‐5 and ‐13 production, and further study indicated that AS‐IV treatment downregulates the expression level of p‐JAK2/p‐STAT6 proteins. Taken together, the present study suggested that the inhibitory effects of AS‐IV on asthma therapy are at least partially involved in inhibiting the JAK2/STAT6 signalling pathway. |
