This study evaluated the dermal cytotoxicity of sodium bromate (NaBrO 3) and the protective effect of Aster tataricus L. (AT) extract against NaBrO 3-induced cytotoxicity in the cultured NIH3T3 fibroblasts. For this study, it was done the antioxidative effects such as electron donating (ED) activity and lipid peroxidation (LP) activity as well as cell viability. NaBrO 3 significantly decreased cell viability in a dose-dependent manner and its XTT 50 value was measured at a concentration of 54.4 μM in these cultures. The cytotoxicity of NaBrO 3 was determined as highly-toxic by Borenfreund and Puerner's toxic criteria. The quercetin, antioxidant significantly increased cell viability against NaBrO 3-induced cytotoxicity. Regarding the protective effect of Aster tataricus (AT) L. extract on NaBrO 3-induced cytotoxicity, AT extract significantly increased the cell viability, the ED ability and the inhibitory ability of LP. From these findings, it suggested that the oxidative stress is involved in the cytotoxicity of NaBrO 3 , and AT extract effectively protected NaBrO 3-induced cytotoxicity by antioxidative effects. Conclusively, the natural component like AT extract may be a putative therapeutic agent for the diminution or treatment of the cytotoxicity correlated with oxidative stress like hair dye component, NaBrO 3 .

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of taping therapy on recovery of behavioral symptoms and neural excitability of the lumbar spinal cord in rat model for ankle sprain. Methods : Adult Sprague-Dawley rats was used and divided into 3 experimental groups: normal group(n=6), ankle sprain(n=6), and ankle sprain with taping treatment(n=6). In order to induce ankle sprain the right ankle joint was injured with 4∼5 repetitive over-flexions and over-extensions manually. The severity of joint pain was evaluated by measuring foot weight bearing force ratio(FWBRF) of the hind limb and the injury-induced edema formation by diameter of the joint following ankle sprain. The changes of neural excitability in the lumbar spinal cord was tested by observation of cFos protein expression, a metabolic marker for neural excitation. Results : Severity of ankle injury induced in this experiment coincided with Grade 1 ankle sprain. Compared with ankle sprain group, ankle sprain＋taping showed a significant reductions of joint pain as well as of edema formation at the ankle joint following ankle sprain. There was significant upregulation of cFos-immunoreactive neurons in the lumbar spinal cord 24 hours after ankle sprain. In contrast, taping therapy resulted in significant inhibition of cFos-immunoreactive neurons in the lumbar spinal cord. Conclusions : Collectively, these results suggest that taping therapy may be an alternative therapeutic intervention for symptom recovery of the mild ankle sprain.