Effects of the Mahuangdingchuan decoction of traditional Korean medicine on expression of p38 MAPK in asthma model of mice

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of Mahuangdingchuan decoction(MHDCD) from traditonal Korean medicine on expression of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(p38 MAPK) of lung tissue in bronchial asthma model of mice.METHODS The asthma models of mice were established by intraperitoneal injection with chicken ovalbumin and repeated ultrasonic atomizing inhalation,and the mice were randomly divided into 4 groups of control,asthma,small and large dose of the MHDCD.Total number of eosinophil(EOS),content of IL-5 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and expression of phosphorylated p38 MAPK of lung tissue were detected by using ELISA and Western blot.RESULTS The expression of phosphorylated p38 MAPK of lung tissue,total number of EOS and content of IL-5 were significantly lower in small and large dose groups of the MHDCD than in the asthama group(P0.05),and the expression of phosphorylated p38 MAPK was positive correlation with total number of EOS and content of IL-5.CONCLUSION The MHDCD has a role of treating the asthma of mice via the activation of p38 MAPK signaling pathway.