Tea consumption has been found to be associated with low incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in Asian countries. However, there is very limited knowledge of such potential protection and its underlying mechanism. Ripened Pu-erh tea (RPT) belongs to the variety of microbial fermented tea, but its function regarding anti-inflammation remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effects of RPT on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. The results demonstrated that RPT significantly relieved the loss of body weight, disease severity and shortening of colon length, and remarkably inhibited the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by lessening the infiltration of inflammatory cells. Furthermore, we found that RPT suppressed the activation of the NF-κB pathway and down-regulated the expression of HIF-1α. Thus, it was concluded that RPT attenuated the progress of colitis via suppressing the HIF-1α/NF-κB signaling pathways thus reducing inflammation. This suggests that RPT may be a potential anti-inflammatory nutraceutical for the prevention and treatment of colonic colitis.

中文翻译：

---

熟普Pu茶的热水提取物通过调节小鼠中的NF-κB和HIF-1α信号传导途径来减轻DSS诱导的结肠炎。

在亚洲国家，饮茶与发炎性肠病的发生率低有关。但是，关于这种潜在保护及其潜在机制的知识非常有限。普Pu茶（RPT）属于微生物发酵茶的种类，但其抗发炎功能尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们调查了RPT对右旋糖酐硫酸钠（DSS）诱导的小鼠结肠炎的影响。结果表明，RPT显着减轻了体重减轻，疾病严重程度和结肠长度缩短，并通过减少炎症细胞的浸润显着抑制了促炎细胞因子的分泌。此外，我们发现RPT抑制NF-κB通路的激活并下调HIF-1α的表达。从而，结论是RPT通过抑制HIF-1α/NF-κB信号传导途径减弱了结肠炎的进展，从而减轻了炎症。这表明RPT可能是预防和治疗结肠炎的潜在消炎营养品。