Influences of STW 5, a multi-component herbal preparation, on motility and inflammation challenges in gut and enteric nervous system (ENS)

The enteric nervous system is responsible for the undisturbed regulation of gut motiliy, secretion or resorption. Whenever the gastrointestinal tract is affect by diseases, the ENS is also part of the problem. Especially during inflammation, the ENS can be stimulated and challenged by inflammatory signaling molecules such as cytokines or hormones.

We investigated the impact of STW 5 on induced motility and inflammation in the gut, respectively the enteric nervous system. Gut segments were kept in an organ bath under perfusion conditions and motility increased by neostigmin application. STW 5 was added after the stimulation. To investigate whether the ENS was the target for the compound, we also performed electrophysiological measurements of enteric neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays.

Inflammation was simulated in isolated ENS tissue. Myenteric plexus from adult mice from both jejunum and colon was isolated and either stimulated with a cytokine cocktail of Interferon-gamma, IL-1ß and TNF-alpha alone, or in combination with the multi-component herbal preparation STW 5.

The plexus tissues were kept for 24 hrs in tissue culture medium and supernatant was collected the following day. Cytokine liberation was measured using Multiplex-ELISA. Application of STW 5 reduced significantly the neostigmin-induced motility in a dose dependent manner. The electrical activity of the neuronal networks could also be increased by neostigmine and was reduced to basal activity by addition of STW 5. In the inflammation approach, the supernatants from colonic and jejunal myenteric plexus showed different responses. While many cytokines were released after cytokine stimulation in both colonic and jejunal preparations, STW 5 led to a complete downregulation of the release only in the colonic myenteric plexus.

STW 5 does regulate both motility and inflammation via a direct interaction with the enteric nervous system.

Fig. 1: Original traces of ME- recordings on dissociated ENS cultures (5 div)