Preventive Effect of Insect Tea on Gastric Ulcer

Our goal of this chapter is to see whether insect tea can protect mice from reserpine induced gastric ulcers. 800 mg/kg dose of insect tea reduced the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-12, TNF-? and interferon IFN-y compared with mice treated with 400 mg/kg) dose and control mice. Serum SS and VIP levels in insect tea treated mice were higher than those in the control group. However, serum levels of MOT and SP) were lower in mice treated with insect tea than in control mice. The gastric ulcer inhibition scores of the mice in the insect tea treated group were lower than those of the control mice, and the high concentration treated mice were comparable with those of ranitidine treated mice. The activities of SOD and GSH-Px in insect tea treated mice were higher than those in the control group and similar to those in normal mice and ranitidine treated mice. NO and MDA levels were close in mice treated with high concentrations of insect tea compared with the normal group. Using qPCR assays, this chapter revealed that insect tea induced inflammation in mouse tissues by downregulating the expression of NF-kB , iNOS, and COX-2, and upregulated the expression of IkB-?. These findings suggest that insect tea is as effective as ranitidine, a gastric ulcer drug, in preventing gastric ulcers and may be used as a drug.