The Effect of Evening Primrose and St. John's Wort Oils on Jak/STAT Signaling Pathways in Mice with Multiple Sclerosis Modeled

Abstract

Objective: Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune demyelinating disease that progresses with inflammatory infiltrates in the central nervous system. Dysregulation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis-induced Multiple Sclerosis models. The aim of this study was to reveal the therapeutic effects of the consumption of St. John's Wort and evening primrose oils on the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.Material and Methods: In our study, 42 nine-week-old C57bl/6 J mice were used and divided into two groups as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (n = 32) and control group (n = 10). MS group was divided into three groups as MS (n=7), MS + evening primrose oil (n=10) and MS + St. John's Wort oil (n= 15). All groups except the control group were immunized by experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis methods. Treatment groups were fed special feeds containing 20 g/kg St. John's Wort and 20 g/kg evening primrose oils for 6 weeks. Two weeks after Multiple Sclerosis induction, clinical signs of disease were scored daily for each mouse. Brain tissue samples were collected for measurement of JAK2, p-JAK2, STAT1 and p-STAT1 protein expression level by Western blot method.Results: We showed that the expression levels of p-JAK2, JAK2, p-STAT1 and STAT1 in the JAK/STAT pathway associated with the pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis disease increased significantly in the Multiple Sclerosis group compared to the controls and decreased significantly in the groups fed with St. John's wort and evening primrose oil (p<0.05).Conclusion: In the light of the data, consumption of evening primrose and alternatively St. John's wort oils as nutritional supplements may contribute to the improvement of the molecular pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis disease.