ABSTRACT
Object To study the effects of WUZI SIWU GUASHITANG (WT) against multi glycosides of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. (GTW) induced genital system toxicity in male rats and its mechanism. Methods Male rats in treatment groups were treated respectively with a 80 days oral administration of large , middle and small doses of WT plus a fixed dose of GTW. The rats as control were treated with GTW alone or saline. Thereafter, the changes in testis organ index, the number of spermatozoa, the rate of movable spermatozoa and the structure of spermatogenic cell epithlium were observed and the serum testosterone level was determined by IRMA. Then the comparison was made between treatment and control groups as to above variables. Results As compared with GTW group, large or middle dose of WT significantly increased the weight of testis, the number of spermatozoa and the rate of movable spermatozoa. Large dose of WT could relieve the damage of GTW to the spermatogenic cell epithelium completely and keep the serum testosterone at normal level. Conclusion The combined use of GTW with WT is very useful in relief of GTW induced adverse reactions of genital system in male rats. The mechanism by which WT exerts the counteractive effects is related to protecting the spermatogenic cell epithelium from being damaged by GTW, and keeping the serum testosterone at normal level.
ABSTRACT
A ready-made Chinese herb containing the glycosides of Tripteri-gium wilfordii ( GTW ) have been reported to cause testicular atrophy in men. Various fractions isolated from GTW were screened in experiments on rats and mice to observe their antifertility effects and found that the monomer T9 among the requirements for male contraceptive need to be elucidated. T9 was administered through gastric intubation at a dose of 0.1mg/kg?d-1 7w? All the T9 treated rats exhibited minimal testicular damage at the end of seventh week of treatment, but causes severe damages mainly the epididymal, the spermatozod showed various structural abnormalities, including cracked midpiece, decapitation of the sperm head commonly ( above 90% ) . It is no malformed round or tadpoleshapes head sperms discernible, no significant changes were seen in main visceral organs, no immunosuppressive actions was observed. The potencies of anti-sperm activity of T9 is 100 times stronger than GTW.
ABSTRACT
The present study reported the effect of two male antifertility agents gossypol acetic acid and GTW on DNA of C3H10T1/2 mouse fibroblasts. Our results showed that the cells treated with gossypol or GTW at high concentration (2-3 ?g/ml) for 4 hours, show silver grains in their nuclei as much as the positive control group, N-methyl N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) a known carcinogen. However, if the agents were used at moderate concentrations (0.5-1?g/ml), the silver grains were much less, if the concentrations of gossypol or GTW were of 0.1-0.3 ?g/ml, the silver grains were as less as the control group. In a colony-forming test, we found that the cells lost their proliferate ability, since no colonies could be formed, if gossypol or GTW were of high concentration; while at moderate or low concentrations, the colony-forming rate was as high as 8.1-10.5％. Taking all of these results into consideration, we suggest that high concentrations of gossypol or GTW can damage cell DNA severely, moderate concentration of the agents break cell DNA to a certain extent, but the cells can repair, while low concentration of gossypol or GTW exert no obvious effect on cells. The significance of these observations was briefly discussed.