Research Article Protective Effect of Amphipterygium adstringens Extract on Dextran Sulphate Sodium-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Mice Mario Rodriguez-Canales, 1 Ruben Jimenez-Rivas, 2 Maria Margarita Canales-Martinez, 3 Ana Judith Garcia-Lopez, 2 Nelly Rivera-Yañez, 2 Oscar Nieto-Yañez, 2 Yadira Ledesma-Soto, 4 Luvia Enid Sanchez-Torres, 1 Miriam Rodriguez-Sosa, 4 Luis Ignacio Terrazas, 4 and Marco Aurelio Rodriguez-Monroy 2 1 Departamento de Inmunolog´ ıa, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biol´ ogicas, Instituto Polit´ ecnico Nacional, Prolongaci´ on de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, 11400 Ciudad de M´ exico, Mexico 2 Laboratorio de Inmunobiolog´ ıa, Carrera de Medicina, FES Iztacala, UNAM, Avenida de los Barrios N´ umero 1, Colonia Los Reyes Iztacala, 54090 Tlalnepantla, MEX, Mexico 3 Laboratorio de Farmacognosia, UBIPRO, FES Iztacala, UNAM, Avenida de los Barrios N´ umero 1, Colonia Los Reyes Iztacala, 54090 Tlalnepantla, MEX, Mexico 4 Unidad de Biomedicina, FES Iztacala, UNAM, Avenida de los Barrios N´ umero 1, Colonia Los Reyes Iztacala, 54090 Tlalnepantla, MEX, Mexico Correspondence should be addressed to Marco Aurelio Rodriguez-Monroy; dr.marcorodriguezmonroy@gmail.com Received 18 March 2016; Accepted 3 July 2016 Academic Editor: Chang-Shik Yin Copyright © 2016 Mario Rodriguez-Canales et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Amphipterygium adstringens is an endemic species in Mexico commonly known as “cuachalalate.” Healers to treat gastritis, gastric ulcers, and gastrointestinal cancer have traditionally used the bark. We investigated the efects of alcoholic extract of A. adstringens (AaEE) in DSS-induced colitis in mice. Te protective efect of AaEE was determined at 200 mg/kg by oral gavage for 10 days. We determine the efect of AaEE on clinical features (disease activity index), antioxidants, anti-infammatory, and immunomodulatory activities in relation to the activity of SOD, CAT, and GPx, levels of proinfammatory cytokines, and changes both macroscopic and microscopic of the colonic mucosa. AaEE signifcantly reduced the infammation of colon and signifcantly increased SOD and GPx activities. AaEE also signifcantly decreased TNF-, IFN-, and IL-1 cytokine levels compared to DSS-treated mice and reduced both infltration of infammatory cells and the mucosal damage in colon. Te results suggested the protective potential of AaEE in DSS-induced colitis and this might be attributed to its phytochemicals compounds that have been found to induce a wide spectrum of activities such as reduction in oxidative stress, suppression of infammation, modulating numerous signal transduction pathways, and induction of apoptosis. Te fndings of this study suggest that AaEE has substantial potential for the treatment of infammatory colitis. 1. Introduction Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a major type of infammatory bowel disease characterized by chronic, relapsing intestinal infammation with extensive damage of colonic mucosa. It is presented by a variety of clinical manifestations, including attacks of abdominal cramps, pain, bloody diarrhea, bleed per rectum, weight loss, fever, and easy fatigability, which may begin gradually or start totally all at once [1, 2]. Tere are diferent drugs currently used in UC, including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, or biological therapies such as the use of anti-TNF antibodies. Although all of them have shown some grade of efcacy in these intestinal conditions, the frequency and severity of adverse efects, inconvenient dosing regimen, and partially prohibitive price limit their long-term use [3, 4]. For this reason, the development of new therapies that combine efcacy, convenient dosing, and fewer side efects is an Hindawi Publishing Corporation Mediators of Inflammation Volume 2016, Article ID 8543561, 12 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8543561