Effects of Geniposide from Gardenia Fruit Pomace on Skeletal-Muscle Fibrosis

Geniposide
is the main bioactive constituent of gardenia fruit.
Skeletal-muscle fibrosis is a common and irreversibly damaging process.
Numerous studies have shown that geniposide could improve many chronic
diseases, including metabolic syndrome and tumors. However, the effects
of geniposide on skeletal-muscle fibrosis are still poorly understood.
Here, we found that crude extracts of gardenia fruit pomace could
significantly decrease the expression of profibrotic genes in vitro.
Moreover, geniposide could also reverse profibrotic-gene expression
induced by TGF-β and Smad4, a regulator of skeletal-muscle fibrosis.
In addition, geniposide treatment could significantly downregulate
profibrotic-gene expression and improve skeletal-muscle injuries in
a mouse model of contusion. These results together suggest that geniposide
has an antifibrotic effect on skeletal muscle through the suppression
of the TGF-β–Smad4 signaling pathway.