Effects of emodin and baicalein on rats with severe acute pancreatitis

Aim: To investigate the therapeutic effects of emodin in combination with baicalein on severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats and to explore the mechanism of SAP. Methods: A total of 112 SAP rats induced by retrograde injection of 5% sodium taurocholate into the biliary-pancreatic duct, randomly assigned to a untreated group and three treated groups emodin group, combined emodin and baicalein group, and sandostatin group. Meanwhile, another 28 other rats were selected as sham operation (SO) group. There were 28 rats in each group, 8 rats were in 3 and 6 h groups respectively, and 12 rats in 12 h group. At each time-points, survival rates, ascites volumes, pathological lesion scores of pancreas tissues, serum amylase, tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-6 levels were determined as the indexes of therapeutic effects. Results: The survival rate at 12 h was significantly higher in three treated groups than in untreated group. The ascites volume at 12 h was remarkably less in combined and sandostatin groups than in emodin group, but there was no difference between combined group and sandostatin group (P>0.05). Serum amylase levels at all time-points were significantly lower in three treated groups than in untreated group. However, they had no difference among treated groups (P>0.05). Serum TNF-α were lower in three treated groups than in untreated group at all time points. Among the three treated groups, at 6 h, the TNF-α levels of combination and sandostatin groups were lower than those of emodin group. These was no difference between combined and sandostantin. Serum IL-6 concentration at 3 h were lower in combined and sandostatin groups than in untreated group, but at 6 and 12 h they were lower in all treated groups than in untreated group and the combined and sandostatin groups and in emodin group, no difference was found between combined and sandostatin groups at all time-points (P>0.05). The pathological scores of pancreas at all time points were significantly lower in three treated groups than in the untreated group, and at 6, 12 h, the scores of combined and sandostatin groups were lower than in emodin group. There was no difference between combined and sandostatin groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Combination of emodin with baicalein has significant therapeutic effects on SAP rats.