Therapeutic effect of daucosterol on DSS-induced colitis in mice

Sep 30, 2026

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Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an intestinal disease driven by multiple factors and associated with severe health impacts. This study uses a DSS-induced mouse colitis model to assess daucosterol’s (DAU) ability to relieve colitis and clarify its mechanism. DAU reduces clinical colitis symptoms, lowers proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in serum, and reshapes gut microbiota to mitigate DSS-induced inflammation. The findings support DAU as a promising preventive agent for colitis.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

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Pages11

Reading Time28 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Materials and methods

Animal experimental design

Liang et al. BMC Microbiology (2026) 26:18 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-025-04556-6](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-025-04556-6) BMC Microbiology RESEARCH Open Access Therapeutic effect of daucosterol on DSSinduced colitis in mice Jing Liang 1†, Huihui Yang 1†, Kelin Chen 1, Jiahao Cai 1, Yuling Wang 1 andYanhong Yong 1* Abstract Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an intestinal disease caused by multiple factors that severely affects the health of humans and animals. In this study, a DSS-induced mouse colitis model was utilized to investigate the ability of daucosterol (DAU) to alleviate colitis and its underlying mechanism of action. The experimental results showed that DAU could alleviate the clinical symptoms of colitis in mice, reduce the expression of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) in mouse serum, and modulate the gut microbiota to alleviate DSS-induced colitis in mice. In conclusion, DAU has great potential in the prevention of colitis. Keywords Daucosterol, Ulcerative colitis, DSS, Gut microbiota Introduction The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic gastrointestinal disorder, is increasing annually [1]. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of IBD. UC is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by colonic inflammation and ulceration [2], presenting with typical symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, and tenesmus [3]. Flavonoids, a subgroup of polyphenolic compounds, possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, thereby alleviating colonic damage and contributing to the treatment of UC [4]. Daucosterol (DAU), a natural sterol compound, exhibits anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory activities, as demonstrated by numerous studies [5–8]. Experimental evidence indicates that DAU attenuates cardiac dysfunction, improves ventricular remodeling, and reduces oxidative †Jing Liang and Huihui Yang contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Yanhong Yong [yongyanhong-007@163.com](yongyanhong-007@163.com) 1College of Coastal Agricultural Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China stress in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) mice by activating the PPARα pathway and suppressing NF-κB signaling, which is consistent with its established antioxidant function [9]. Furthermore, DAU has been shown to prevent alcohol-induced liver injury by exerting anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which also mitigate oxidative stress and lipid accumulation in the liver in various chronic inflammatory diseases [10]. DAU is known to exhibit anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. The evidence indicates that these compounds mediate cardioprotective effects through inactivation of the NOS-dependent NLRP3 inflammasome during preconditioning [11]. DAU also shows therapeutic potential for multiple myeloma (MM), where molecular docking was used to validate predicted regulatory associations with targets, and interaction patterns between DAU and key targets were analyzed [12]. In the protein‒protein interaction (PPI) network, DAU-targeted genes were significantly enriched in MM-related pathways, highlighting their therapeutic potential for MM. Moreover, DAU clearly plays a role in alleviating DSSinduced colitis; however, the impact of DAU on the intestinal microbiota remains unknown [13]. © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are i

FAQs

What colitis model and treatment were used in the study?

A DSS-induced colitis model was established in C57BL/6 mice, followed by oral administration of different DAU doses for a specified period.

How did daucosterol affect inflammatory markers?

DAU reduced the expression of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in mouse serum.

What role did gut microbiota play in DAU’s effects?

The study indicates DAU modulates the gut microbiota, contributing to the alleviation of DSS-induced colitis.

Sep 30, 2026

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