Effects of Serum Containing Duanteng Yimu Decoction on Proliferation of Fibroblast-like Synoviocytes(FLS) and TLR4 Expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Objective To investigate the effects of serum containing Duanteng Yimu Decoction(DYD) on the proliferation of fibroblast-like synoviocytes and TLR4(Toll-like receptor 4) expression in rheumatoid arthritis(RA) patients.Methods Synovial specimens obtained from the joint of RA patients.In the first experiment,the third to fifth generations of subcultured RA-FLS were co-cultured with leflunomide or serum containing high-,moderate and low-dosage DYD.RA-FLS of control group was cultured with the serum of normal rabbit.After 24,48 and 72 hours,the morphological features of RA-FLS were observed under inverted microscope,Proliferation was measured by MTT method.In the second experiment,RA-FLS of control group was cultured without lipopolysaccharide(LPS) added,the expeviment group was added with LPS 20 μg·mL-1,and the experiment group was added with leflunomide or DYD-containing serum with the highest cell inhibiting rate after treatment with LPS.Realtime-PCR was used for the observation of TLR4 mRNA in RA-FLS.Results Compared to the control group,leflunomide and serum containing high-dosage DYD obviously inhibited the proliferation of RA-FLS(Ρ 0.05) after culturing for 48 and 72 hours,and had obvious inhibitory effect on TLR4 mRNA after stimulation with LPS(Ρ 0.05).The effect of serum containing DYD and leflunomide.Conclusion Serum containing high-and moderate-dosage DYD can inhibit RA-FLS proliferation,and serum containing high-dosage DYD can down-regulate the expression of TLR4 mRNA,which may be one of the therapeutic mechanisms of DYD for RA.