Chinese Naoshekang Recipe extract improves cognitive function and its mechanism in rats with diabetes mellitus

Deshan Liu, Wei Gao, Weiwei Lin, Toyoshi Inoguchi, Ryoichi Takayanagi

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    The Chinese Naoshekang Recipe (CNR) extract used to treat diabetes is a traditional Chinese prescription composed of 9 crude drugs: Astragalus Membranaceus, Prepared Rehmannia Root, Solomonseal Rhizome, Szechwan Lovage Rhizome, Barbary Wolfberry Fruit, Epimedium Leaf, Atractylodes Lancea, Kudzuvine Root, and Coptis chinensis Franch. In our previous study, the CNR and its constitutive extracts showed a significant improvement in electrophysiological loss of diabetic patients or cerebral ischemia-reperfusion rabbits. This study was designed to investigate the effect of the CNR extract on learning and memory ability of rats with diabetes mellitus, and to study its neuroprotective mechanism. Thirty-four male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: normal control group (NC group, n=10), diabetic control group (DC group, n=12), diabetic rats treated with the CNR extract (DT group, n=12). Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg). Three days after the confirmation of diabetes, the rats of DT group were orally administered a dose of the CNR extract 600mg/kg body weight/d (prepared into 5% water solution with distilled water) by a stomach tube. NC and DC groups were only administered an equal volume of distilled water. All operations continued for six weeks. At the sixth weekend, we detected fasting blood glucoses (FBG), the learning and memory ability by Y-maze, and HE staining, immunohistochemistry and imageanalysis of brain tissue. The results indicated that (1) FBGs in DC and DT groups are higher than that in the NC group with a significant difference (all p<0.01), and FBG in DT group is significantly lower than that in DC group (p<0.01); (2) the scores of Y-maze in DC group is significantly higher than that in NC group (both p<0.05), while the scores in DT group is significantly higher than those in DC and NC groups (all p<0.001); (3) the hippocampal neuron counting in DC group is significantly lower than that in NC group (p<0.001), while that in DT group is significantly lower than that in NC group, significantly higher than that in DC group (both p<0.001); (4) the Bcl-2 expression in DT group is significantly higher than that in DC group, significantly lower than that in NC group, while the Bax expression in DT group is significantly lower than that in DC group, significantly higher than that in NC group(all p<0.05). We conclude that (1) the CNR extract improves the learning and memory ability of diabetic rats; (2) its mechanism may regulate the expression of apoptosis protein Bax and anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2, and inhibit apoptosis of hippocampal neurons.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication2011 International Conference on Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering, RSETE 2011 - Proceedings
    Pages7450-7453
    Number of pages4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    Event2011 International Conference on Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering, RSETE 2011 - Nanjing, China
    Duration: Jun 24 2011Jun 26 2011

    Publication series

    Name2011 International Conference on Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering, RSETE 2011 - Proceedings

    Other

    Other2011 International Conference on Remote Sensing, Environment and Transportation Engineering, RSETE 2011
    Country/TerritoryChina
    CityNanjing
    Period6/24/116/26/11

    All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

    • Computer Networks and Communications
    • Environmental Engineering
    • Transportation

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