Shengmaisan regulates pacemaker potentials in interstitial cells of cajal in mice

Shengmaisan (SMS) is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription widely used for the treatment of diverse organs in Korea. The interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) are pacemaker cells that play an important role in the generation of coordinated gastrointestinal (GI) motility. We have aimed to investigate the effects of SMS in the ICCs in the mouse small intestine.

To dissociate the ICCs, we used enzymatic digestions from the small intestine in a mouse. After that, the ICCs were identified immunologically by using the anti-c-kit antibody. In the ICCs, the electrophysiological whole-cell patch-clamp configuration was used to record pacemaker potentials in the cultured ICCs.

The ICCs generated pacemaker potentials in the mouse small intestine. SMS produced membrane depolarization with concentration-dependent manners in the current clamp mode. Pretreatment with a Ca(2+) free solution and thapsigargin, a Ca(2+)-ATPase inhibitor in the endoplasmic reticulum, stopped the generation of the pacemaker potentials. In the case of Ca(2+)-free solutions, SMS induced membrane depolarizations. However, when thapsigargin in a bath solution was applied, the membrane depolarization was not produced by SMS. The membrane depolarizations produced by SMS were inhibited by U-73122, an active phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitors. Furthermore, chelerythrine and calphostin C, a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors had no effects on SMS-induced membrane depolarizations.

These results suggest that SMS might affect GI motility by modulating the pacemaker activity through an internal Ca(2+)- and PLC-dependent and PKC-independent pathway in the ICCs.