Effect of P. ginseng on the expression of c-Fos in the brain of Wistar rats with testosterone induced benign prostatic hyperplasia

Abstract

The lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) show in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The three major micturition centers in brain are pontine micturition center (PMC), ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG), and medial preopticnucleus (MPA) regions. Previous study showed that c-Fos expression change was associated with LUTS. In present study, the effect of P. ginseng on c-Fos expression in PMC, vlPAG, and MPA regions in rat brain was tested. P. ginseng is the four year-old Korean ginseng. It was collected at the department of medicinal crop research (Eumsunggun, Chungbuk, Korea) in September 2010. The four groups (n = 6) are control group, BPH-induced group, BPHinduced and P. ginseng-treated group, and BPH-induced and finasteride-treated group. BPH in rats was induced by testosterone. After 4 weeks, all animals were sacrificed to evaluate c-Fos expression in PMC, vlPAG, and MPA regions in rat brain. The c-Fos expression was evaluated in the regions of rat brain by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Present results showed that c-Fos expressions in PMC, vl-PAG, and MPA regions in brain of rats in the BPH-induced group were higher compared to c-fos expression of the control group. The increased c-Fos expression in three regions (PMC, vlPAG, and MPA) were decreased by treatment with P. ginseng (200 mg/kg). These results suggest that P. ginseng has an inhibitory effect on the symptoms of BPH and is associated with regulation of c-Fos expression in the brain in a testosterone induced BPH rat model.