Effects of Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus in mice submitted to protein restriction

Abstract

The present study was to investigate the effects of water extracts of Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus stem extract (ADE) on an exacerbated immune function through utilization of a protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) diet. ADE has been used in Korea as a tonic and sedative agents as well as a drug with ginseng like activities. However, there is no pronouncing about the immune system on the PEM feeding mice. The immobility time were significantly decreased in the ADE-administrated group as compared to the control group on the forced swimming test (P<0.05). The level of aspartate aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase in blood was significantly reduced in the ADE-administrated group (P<0.05). ADE also significantly decreased production of interferon-γ and interleukin (IL)-4 but not IL-2 in splenocytes (P<0.05). We used a manually antibody microarray to carry out the signaling protein microarray analysis. Unfortunately, we did not find change of protein expression. These results suggest that ADE have the anti-fatigue effect and the immune regulation effect.

Cherry Tomato Supplementation Reduces Cardiovascular Risk

“…Food intake was measured daily, and body weights were determined weekly. Daily food intake, body weights, food efficiency ratio (FER), and relative liver weight were determined according to the previous reports (Kim et al, 2011;Jo et al, 2014). Serum alanine aminotransferase (AST), aspartate aminotransferase (ALT), glucose, TG, total cholesterol (TC), and HDL-C were measured using the FUSI DRI-CHEM SLIDE kit and a FUSI DRI-CHEM 4000 analyzer (Fujifilm, Tokyo, Japan).…”