Berberine alleviates radiation-induced intestinal injury by inhibiting cellular senescence

The aim was to study the inhibitory effect of berberine (BBR) on intestinal senescence induced by radiation and explore its mechanism.

Male C57BL/6J mice and SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: Control, irradiation (IR), and IR + BBR. Except for the normal control group, which received sham irradiation, the other two groups were subjected to abdominal X-ray irradiation (12 Gy for mice and 15 Gy for rats). Mesenteric blood flow was detected using laser speckle blood flow contrast imaging. Senescence markers were evaluated using RT-qPCR, Western blot analysis, and SA-β-Gal staining. 16S rRNA sequencing technology was used to study the changes in the intestinal microbiota. MRI was used to evaluate the efficacy of BBR on intestinal injury.

Our results showed that BBR can alleviate radiation-induced DNA damage and senescence in mouse intestines, mitigate both acute and chronic radiation-induced intestinal damage, and is accompanied by an improvement in intestinal flora imbalance. In addition, BBR enhances the survival and proliferative capacity of irradiated intestinal epithelial cells, inhibits radiation-induced cellular senescence and SASP in vitro, and prevents cells from entering senescence. The underlying mechanism may involve the activation of the Nrf2-related pathway.

Our findings suggest that BBR can effectively alleviate the intestinal cellular senescence caused by radiation, concomitant with the remodeling of gut microbiota, which provides potential implications for using BBR as a drug against radiation-induced intestinal injury.