ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the effects of Ruanmailing Oral Liquid, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, on spatial learning and memory ability and expression of apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease/redox factor-1 (APE/Ref-1) in hippocampal CA1 region in rats with experimental vascular dementia (VaD). Methods: VaD was induced in rats by permanent occlusion of bilateral common carotid arteries. Forty-five VaD rats were randomly divided into untreated group, nimodipine group, low-dose Ruanmailing group and high-dose Ruanmailing group. Another 15 rats underwent a sham operation consisting of similar skin incision and manipulation but without occlusion of carotid arteries. From the next day after occlusion, the rats were intragastrically administered with normal saline, nimodipine suspension or Ruanmailing Oral Liquid respectively for 30 days. Morris water maze experiment was adopted to test learning and memory of rats in each group. Expression of APE/Ref-1 protein in the hippocampal CA1 region was measured by immunohistochemical method. Results: Escape latency was significantly shortened and number of entries in the target area of rats was significantly increased in the high-dose Ruanmailing group as compared with those in the untreated group (P<0.01). Compared with the untreated group, count of APE/Ref-1 positive cells was significantly increased in the hippocampal CA1 region in the high- and low-dose Ruanmailing groups (P<0.01). Compared with the low-dose group and the nimodipine group, the count of APE/Ref-1 positive cells was remarkably increased in the hippocampal CA1 region in rats of the high-dose Ruanmailing group (P<0.01). There was no statistical difference between the low-dose Ruanmailing group and the nimodipine group. Conclusion: Ruanmailing Oral Liquid can improve the learning and memory ability and enhance the lowered expression level of APE/Ref-1 in the hippocampal CA1 region of rats with VaD.
ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the effects of allicin on the proliferation and apoptosis of HL-60 cells,and to explore the underlying mechanism.Methods The cell viability and colony formation were detected by MTT assay.Apoptotic cells were tested by means of TUNEL labeling.RT-PCR was used to analyze the bcl-2 mRNA expressions.Results HL-60 cell growth was significantly inhibited by allicin in dose and time dependent manners.Cell colony formation obviously decreased.The typical hypo-diploid pea J apoptotic peaJ appeared in each dose group.Apoptosis occured in a dose-dependent manner.And its later stages were identified by TUNEL labeling methods respectively,and bcl-2/bax was decreased.The expression of bcl-2 mRNA was down-regulated in a time-dependent manner after treatment with allicin at different time points.Conclusion Allicin effectively inhibits growth and induces apoptosis on HL-60 cells,which may be related with the down-regulation of expressions of bcl-2.