Mechanism and Basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine Against Obesity: Prevention and Treatment Strategies

Frontiers in Pharmacology

卷:12

Jun-qing Sheng¹  Ya-nan Xue²  Chang-hua Zhang²  Wei-hua Xie²  Xiao-quan Luo³  Guo-Liang Xu⁴  Chen Chen⁵ 

[1] College of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China;

[2] College of Pharmacy, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China;

[3] Experimental Animal Science and Technology Center of TCM, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China;

[4] Research Center for Differentiation and Development of Basic Theory of TCM, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China;

[5] School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia;

关键词: traditional Chinese medicine;    metabolic disorders;    inflammation;    dampness-heat syndrome;    hypoxia;    obesity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphar.2021.615895

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In the last few decades, the incidences of obesity and related metabolic disorders worldwide have increased dramatically. Major pathophysiology of obesity is termed “lipotoxicity” in modern western medicine (MWM) or “dampness-heat” in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “Dampness-heat” is a very common and critically important syndrome to guild clinical treatment in TCM. However, the pathogenesis of obesity in TCM is not fully clarified, especially by MWM theories compared to TCM. In this review, the mechanism underlying the action of TCM in the treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders was thoroughly discussed, and prevention and treatment strategies were proposed accordingly. Hypoxia and inflammation caused by lipotoxicity exist in obesity and are key pathophysiological characteristics of “dampness-heat” syndrome in TCM. “Dampness-heat” is prevalent in chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, prone to insulin resistance (IR), and causes variant metabolic disorders. In particular, the MWM theories of hypoxia and inflammation were applied to explain the “dampness-heat” syndrome of TCM, and we summarized and proposed the pathological path of obesity: lipotoxicity, hypoxia or chronic low-grade inflammation, IR, and metabolic disorders. This provides significant enrichment to the scientific connotation of TCM theories and promotes the modernization of TCM.

【 授权许可】

Unknown