Imperatorin alleviated endometriosis by inhibiting the activation of PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway in rats

Tengyun Ma, Ma T, Panwang Liu, Liu P, Jiangping Wei, Wei J, Zhao M, Meihuan Zhao, Xingxing Yao, Yao X, Luo X, Xiaohong Luo, Shijun Xu, Xu S
Life sciences · 2021 · vol. 274 , pp. 119291 · doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119291 · PMID:33667515 · W3135581839
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 13 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Imperatorin treatment in rats reduced endometriosis by suppressing the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway.

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Abstract

AimsMost therapeutic drugs of endometriosis have been contraceptives but symptoms recur in up to 75% of cases, which makes it a presses need to try to find novel and safer therapeutic drugs. Imperatorin is a furanocoumarin existing in many plants, possessing multiple activities, including anti-inflammatory. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects and mechanisms of imperatorin in endometriosis.Main methodsEctopic endometrial volume and hematoxylin-eosin staining were used to estimate the effects of imperatorin in experimental endometriosis model rats. Potential mechanisms of imperatorin in endometriosis were systematically analyzed by network pharmacology and molecular docking. Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were employed to evaluate proteins expression and cytokines levels in PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway.Key findingsImperatorin could significantly inhibit the growth and ameliorate the histopathological features of ectopic endometrium in experimental endometriosis rats. Network pharmacology approaches showed that imperatorin might regulate inflammatory response and cellular function via primarily affecting PI3K-Akt pathway, Endocrine resistance, Th17 cell differentiation in endometriosis. Moreover, 7 core targets (PIK3CA, AKT1, SRC, MAPK8, MAPK14, ERBB2 and CCND1) resulted from the intersection of KEGG and PPI network topological analysis were used to dock with imperatorin, which indicated that imperatorin could preferably fit in the binding pocket of the above target proteins, except for CCND1. Lastly, imperatorin markedly inhibited the activation of PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway via suppressing the phosphorylation levels of PI3K, Akt and p65 in the ectopic endometrium tissue.SignificanceOur findings revealed that imperatorin is a significant multi-target natural active ingredient for treatment endometriosis.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Furocoumarins Gene Expression Regulation NF-kappa B Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt Animals Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Furocoumarins Gene Expression Regulation NF-kappa B NF-kappa B Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt Rats

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Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

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