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Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine >

2026 , Vol. 46 >Issue 1: 22 - 33

DOI: https://doi.org/10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2026.01.003

Original Articles

Therapeutic effect and anti-inflammatory mechanism of modified Shoutai pills (改良寿胎丸) against lipopolysaccharide-induced miscarriage in mice

  • Junwei LI ,
  • Xinyue LIU ,
  • Xuan MOU ,
  • Hongliang XIE ,
  • Yating GAO ,
  • Aolin ZHANG ,
  • Tao HE ,
  • Tszching YEUNG ,
  • Chao TANG ,
  • Xiaoke WU ,
  • Xiaohui FAN ,
  • Chichiu WANG ,
  • Lu LI
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  • 1 College of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    2 State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    3 International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Chinese Medicine Modernization and Big Health, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, Jiaxing 314102, China
    4 Modern Chinese Medicine and Reproductive Health Joint Innovation Center, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, Jiaxing 314102, China
    5 College of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China
    6 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences; School of Biomedical Sciences; and Sichuan University-Chinese University of Hong Kong Joint Reproductive Medicine Laboratory, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
    7 National Clinical Research Center for Child Health of the Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310052, China
    8 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, China

Accepted date: 2025-10-30

  Online published: 2026-01-28

Supported by

‘Pioneer’ R&D Program of Zhejiang: Research on Key Technologies for the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine New Drugs(2023C03004);National Key Research and Development Program of China: Mechanism Study and Clinical Exploration of Electroacupuncture Promoting Immune Normalization, Supporting the Body and Inhibiting Cancer, and Synergistic Programmed Death Receptor 1 /Programmed Cell Death Ligand 1 Monoclonal Antibody therapy for Intestinal and Biliary Tumors(2023YFC3504600);Zhejiang Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Project: Clinical Metabolomics Based Discovery of Effective Markers for Nourishing Yin of Radix Ophiopogonis in the Treatment of Gestational Diabetes(GZY-ZJKJ-24076);‘Pioneer’ R&D Program of Zhejiang: Analysis of the Complex System of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Development of New Chinese Medicine Drugs - Analysis of the Complex Cross Organ Action Mode of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Anti-Coronary Heart Disease and Blood Stasis Syndrome and Development of New Drugs(2024C03106);Health and Medicinal Research Fund from Health Burden, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China: Chinese Versus Western Medicine for Threatened Miscarriage: Abridged Secondary Publication(15160971);Transverse Research Project of Zhejiang University: Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Big Health Formula for Reproductive Health(2023-KYY-A070350007)

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of modified Shoutai pills (改良寿胎丸, MSTP) in miscarriages, we performed transcriptome sequencing on the decidua and placental tissues of pregnancy mice.

METHODS: The therapeutic effects and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of MSTP were studied in mice with lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced miscarriage. First, the effects of MSTP on pregnancy outcomes and the maternal-fetal interface, in LPS-induced miscarriage mice were examined. RNA sequencing was used to further investigate gene expression changes in LPS-induced miscarriage mice and to assess the effects of MSTP intervention. Finally, the expression levels of inflammation-related genes in the decidua and placental tissues were determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).

RESULTS: A high dose of MSTP significantly decreased the resorption rate (P < 0.05) and reduced apoptosis of the decidua and placental tissues in mice. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses showed that inflammatory and immune-related signals were enriched. qRT-PCR results confirmed that in decidual and placental tissues, MSTP reduced the gene expression levels of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1, p38, and tumor necrosis factor-α.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we demonstrated that MSTP effectively prevented embryo loss with an anti-inflammatory mechanism through downregulation of the TLR4-NF-κB/ MAPK signaling pathway, in LPS-induced miscarriage mice model. To our knowledge, this is the first study to reveal the therapeutic mechanism of MSTP in LPS-induced miscarriage in mice.

Key words： abortion, spontaneous; NF-kappa B; toll-like receptor 4; transcriptomics; modified Shoutai pills

Cite this article

Junwei LI , Xinyue LIU , Xuan MOU , Hongliang XIE , Yating GAO , Aolin ZHANG , Tao HE , Tszching YEUNG , Chao TANG , Xiaoke WU , Xiaohui FAN , Chichiu WANG , Lu LI . Therapeutic effect and anti-inflammatory mechanism of modified Shoutai pills (改良寿胎丸) against lipopolysaccharide-induced miscarriage in mice[J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2026 , 46(1) : 22 -33 . DOI: 10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2026.01.003

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