ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: Several biological activities of total saponins of Radix notoginseng (TSRN), a trational Chinese medicine have been reported. The present study was carried out to investigate anti-fatigue activity of TSRN in male Kunming mice. Methods: Mice were divided into four groups. The first group designated as control group was administered with distilled water by gavage every day. The second, third and fourth groups designated as TSRN treatment groups were administered with TSRN of 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg body weight/day, respectively. The treatment continued for 28 days. Exhaustive swimming time, blood lactate and tissue glycogen contents of mice after swimming were determined. Results: TSRN extended exhaustive swimming time of mice, effectively delayed the increase of lactate in the blood, as well as increased the tissue glycogen contents. Interpretation & conclusions: TSRN showed promising anti-fatigue activity in animal model. However, further study is needed to elucidate the mechanism of the effect of TSRN on fatigue.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and E-cadherin protein in human colorectal carcinoma and their correlation with tumor infiltration and metastasis as well as evaluate the relationship between the expressions of the two proteins. Methods: The expressions of MMP-9 and E-cadherin protein were detected by immunohistochemical staining (streptavidine-peroxidase method) in 52 cases of colorectal carcinoma (including 3 cases of colorectal adenomas with malignant change). Ten cases of normal colorectal tissues were as control. Results: (1) The over-expression of MMP-9 was closely related with lymph node metastasis and invasion of colorectal carcinoma. The positive rate of MMP-9 expression in the patients with lymph node metastasis (100%) was significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis (89%). The positive expression of MMP-9 was significantly higher in patients who survived less than 5 years than those who survived more than 5 years (P 0.05). Conclusion: Over-expression of MMP-9 and reduction or loss of E-cadherin expression has significant correlation with metastasis and infiltration of colorectal carcinoma. The positive expression of MMP-9 closely correlated with the abnormal expression of E-cadherin.