Doubt the validity of serum pharmacology, emphasize the ex vivo experiments on multiple levels / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

The main reasons to doubt the validity of serum pharmacology include①The components of medical herbs absorbed from gastrointetinal tract enter circulating plasma,not serum in vivo.②Blood coagulation involves the activation of a series of proenzymes,and the proteases induce leukocytes to release lysosomal enzymes.These enzymes may degrade some herbal components.③Thrombin can stimulate platelets and leukocytes to secrete many biologically active substances.④Fibrinolysis,complement and kinin systems are activated during blood coagulation.⑤The processes of serum preparation and inactivation always cause lose of lots of herbal components. Recently finger printing analysis using HPLC-MS and antileukemic proliferation experiments showed that the results obtained from serum pharmacological method might be incorrect. We propose that the ex vivo experiments on multiple levels are necessary to elucidate the pharmacological actions and their mechanisms of medical herbs and believe that the pharmacological method using plasma absorbed herbal components should be better than that using serum.