Abstract
Purpose: To explore the activities of Bushen yixue decoction (BSY) against follicular development in anovulatory rats.Methods: Rats were divided into normal, normal control, clomifene citrate (positive control, orally, 5 mg/kg), and BSY (orally, 50, 100, 200 mg/kg) groups. Anovulatory rats were prepared by testosterone propionate injection (1.5 mg/rat). After 70 days, daily vaginal smears were performed for 10 days until no obvious sexual cycle was observed, indicating that androgen-sterilized anovulatory rats were successfully established. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyse BSY chemical composition. Levels of follicular stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), oestradiol (E2), progesterone (P), prolactin (PRL), inhibin (INH), activin (ACT) and follistatin (FS) were determined by radioimmunoassay or enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Western blotting was used to determine Bcl-2, cleaved-caspase-3, Bax, MMP-9 and VEGF in ovarian tissues.Results: BSY increased (p < 0.05) the levels of FSH, LH, E2 (p < 0.05) and ACT, but decreased (p < 0.05) the levels of PRL, INH and FS, relative to control rats. Expressions of VEGF (p < 0.01), MMP-9 (p < 0.05) and Bcl-2 (p < 0.01) were up-regulated by BSY, whereas Bax (p < 0.01) and C-caspase-3 (p < 0.01) were down-regulated.Conclusion: BSY promotes follicular development of anovulatory rats via regulating INH-ACT-FS hormones, VEGF, MMP-9, Caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2. Thus, BSY may have the potential to be developed for clinical management of infertility.Keywords: Bushen yixue decoction, Follicular development, Inhibin-Activin-Follistatin (INH-ACT-FS) system, Androgen-sterilized anovulatory rats
Highlights
EXPERIMENTALInfertility is commonly defined as failure to conceive after 1 year of regular intercourse without contraception for women less than 35 years old, and half a year for women more than 35 years old
The results indicated that flavone was one of the main active components of Bushen yixue decoction (BSY)
The results of the present study showed that VEGF and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-9 were upregulated by treatment with BSY
Summary
Infertility is commonly defined as failure to conceive after 1 year of regular intercourse without contraception for women less than 35 years old, and half a year for women more than 35 years old. In Chinese medicinal theory, it is commonly hypothesized that infertility is mainly related to deficiencies of the kidney, and nourishing the kidney and blood is the primary therapy for treating infertility [10,11,12]. Based on this strategy, Bushen yixue decoction (BSY) is an effective prescription commonly used to treat infertility in China. The rats were weighed, anesthetised, and dissected from the abdomen, and blood samples were collected and centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 min to separate serum samples, which were freeze-dried immediately, and stored at −70 °C until analysis. When p < 0.05, the difference between two groups was recognized as statistically significant
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