The Cimicifuga racemosa special extract BNO 1055 prevents hot flashes in ovariectomized rats.

Hot flashes are a disorder of thermoregulation due to the lack of estrogens and are the most common and characteristic climacteric complaint. Hormone replacement therapy is the gold standard treatment but now its use is limited due to several side effects. Need therefore arises to search for non-estrogenic alternatives. It is well established that extracts of Cimicifuga racemosa (CR) ease climacteric complaints but solid animal experimental data supporting such effects are not available. The availability of sensitive transponders which record subcutaneous temperature continuously enables nowadays experiments in rats to establish whether they have hot flashes following ovariectomy (Seidlova-Wuttke et al. 2003) and if so, whether they can be influenced by the extract of CR BNO 1055. Intact Sprague-Dawley rats (n=16) were acclimatized and their subcutaneous body temperature was measured in 5 min intervals and mean values from 3h recordings were calculated. Thereafter, the rats were ovx and fed either with soy free (sf) or CR BNO 1055 (25 mg/animal/day) food. Temperature was recorded again after acute and sub-acute application of CR. In individual intact animals temperature was stable over the 3h recording period. Following ovx temperature pulses appeared with peaks occurring every 20-40 min. These fluctuations were not seen in CR BNO 1055 treated animals resulting in significantly higher mean temperatures in ovx in comparison to intact or ovx CR BNO treated rats. This reduction of hot flashes by BNO 1055 outlasted the experimental period of 3 weeks. These results suggest that the ovx rats and the new temperature-sensitive device may be useful for the study of hot flashes. Furthermore the results prove that the CR BNO 1055 exerts hot flash reducing effects.

Beta-ecdysone has bone protective but no estrogenic effects in ovariectomized rats.

Estrogens exert beneficial effects in the bone. Their chronic use however bares several risks. Therefore intensive search for non-estrogenic, bone protective compounds is going on. We observed that an extract of Tinospora cordifolia has antiosteoporotic effects and identified 20-OH-Ecdysone (beta-Ecdysone=Ecd) as a possible candidate for this action. Ovariectomized (ovx) rats were treated orally over 3 months with no Ecd (control) or 18, 57 or 121 mg Ecd/day/animal. Estradiol-17beta benzoate (E2) 159 microg/day/animal) fed animals served as positive controls. Bone mineral density (BMD) of tibia was measured by quantitative computer tomography, serum Osteocalcin and CrossLaps were measured in a ligand binding assay. Utilizing an estrogen receptor (ER) containing cytosolic extract of porcine uteri the capability of Ecd to bind to ER was tested. Ecd did not bind to ER. BMD was reduced by more than 50% in the control. In the Ecd animals BMD was dose dependently higher. Serum CrossLaps was lower in the Ecd and E2 group while serum Osteocalcin levels were decreased in the E2 but increased in the Ecd fed animals. Ecd has an antiosteoporotic effect which does not involve activation of ER.

Measuring climacteric symptoms and age at natural menopause in an Indian population using the Greene Climacteric Scale.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to establish the age at onset of natural menopause and the prevalence of symptoms and identify any sociodemographic, physical, or other factors that may influence the onset of menopause among women in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, a state located in northern India. METHODS: Women in the age group of 30 to 65 years were interviewed using a questionnaire that has a four-point scale. Participants (N = 129) were divided into three categories: premenopause, early postmenopause (1-5 years after last menstrual cycle), and late postmenopause (>5 years after last menstrual cycle). The Greene Climacteric Scale was used to assess the frequency and severity of the climacteric symptoms. RESULTS: Recalled mean +/- SD age at menopause was 45.02 +/- 4.35 years, and age at menopause computed by probit analysis was 46.82 years. An increase in the percentage of occurrence and severity of symptoms with transition to menopause was observed. The most prevalent symptom was muscle and joint pains (55.81%), followed by feeling tired or lack of energy (51.19%), eye problems (49.61%), headache (43.41%), and feeling unhappy or depressed (36.43%). Women who belonged to middle class families had a late onset of menopause (45.47 years) compared with women of poor socioeconomic status (42.13 years) (P < 0.05). Women who had active or hectic lifestyles achieved menopause at an earlier age in comparison with women with a sedentary lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first attempt to report the data on menopause from Uttarakhand, a state located in northern India. Computed age at the onset of menopause varied by approximately 2 years with different methodologies used. Socioeconomic status and lifestyles significantly affect the age at the onset of menopause. Most of the women rated menopause as a positive change in life.

Expression of brush border enzymes in response to lead exposure in rat intestine.

The effect of feeding lead (50 mg kg(-1) body weight) daily for 7 days on the development of various brush border enzymes in the intestine has been studied. The activities of brush border sucrase (P < 0.001), lactase (P < 0.001), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (P < 0.05) and leucine aminopeptidase were reduced (P < 0.05), whereas the alkaline phosphatase level was augmented (P < 0.05) in lead fed rats compared with controls. Kinetic studies with sucrase revealed a low Vmax (0.224 in control and 0.160 units mg(-1) protein in lead exposed) with no change in Km (12.6-13.5 mM). Western blot analysis for alkaline phosphatase yielded intense staining of enzyme protein in lead fed rats compared with controls, however, the intensity of the antigen signal was reversed for sucrase under these conditions. These findings suggest that ingestion of lead may interfere with the crypt cell differentiation process thus affecting enzyme functions in the rat intestine.