ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the characteristics of liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome in late stage of spontaneously hypertension rats (SHRs). Methods Ten 12-month-old healthy male SHRs were put into syndrome observer group (SHR group), while ten male WKY rats with the same age were set as control group (WKY group). Syndrome differentiation method on rats was employed to transform the four-diagnostic information into general behavior indexes with the same significance. The afternoon anal temperature, tongue color, holding power, ability of learning and memory, serum estradiol and testosterone level were observed, compared and analyzed. Results Compared with the WKY group, rats in the SHR group had higher afternoon anal temperature, redder tongues, poorer strength and claw holding power and their ability of learning and memory was retarded; the level of serum estradiol was lower;the ratio of estradiol to testosterone was higher. All of these were largely in line with deficiency of live-kidney yin syndrome. Conclusion SHRs in late stage show characteristics of liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the influence of aconite root, a Chinese medicinal herb with hot property, on energy metabolism and gene expression spectrum, and to analyze the possible mechanism of it effect.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Thirty two SPF Wistar rats were randomly divided into aconite root group and control group. Decoction of aconite root and NS were intragastrically administrated with the concentration of 10 mL x kg(-1) respectively once a day for 20 days. Temperature, energy intake (EI), digestive energy (DE) and metabolic energy (ME) were measured. The activity of ATPase and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) in liver was detected by colorimetry. The gene expression of liver was detected with Illumina's rat ref-12 gene array. The differential expression genes were selected, annotated and classified based on gene ontology (GO). Real-time quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (Q-RT-PCR) was used to test the accuracy of the array results.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Compared with the control group, the toe temperature (TT) on the 10th and 20th day after the administration,the EI/BM( body mass), DE/BM, ME/BM and the activity of Na+ - K+ - ATPase, Ca2+ - Mg2+ - ATPase and SDH of liver in the aconite root group increased significantly (P<0.05). There were 592 differential expression genes in aconite root group compared with the control group. Based on Go analysis, the most significant genes was related to metabolic process (lgP = - 15.5897).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Aconite root could improve the energy metabolism in rats, by influencing the metabolic process of sugar, lipid and amino acid, which may be the main molecular mechanism of warming yang and dispelling cold for the treatment of the cold syndrome according to Chinese medicine theory.</p>