Preventive effect of traditional herbal medicine, shosaiko-to, on danazol-induced hepatic damage

Abstract

The incidence of the hepatic damage during treatment with danazol (D), indicated by increased serum GOT, GPT and LDH levels, has been shown to be high especially in Japan. Thus, the preventive effect of the traditional herbal medicine, shosaiko-to (SS) was investigated in the administration of D and SS for 16 weeks (D + SS group, N = 9) and the pre-administration of SS for about 4 weeks followed by D and SS for 16 weeks (SS → D + SS group, N = 15). The incidence of serum GOT, GPT and LDH levels of more than normal range during the administration of danazol in the D + SS group was similar to that in the previous study of the administration of D alone. But it was significantly lower in the SS → D + SS group than the D + SS group. The mean levels of serum GOT and GPT were much lower in the SS → D + SS group than the D + SS group throughout the administration of danazol and the difference was significant at 8, 10 and 12 weeks in serum GOT levels and at 4 weeks in serum GPT levels. These results indicate that the pre-administration of SS has great efficacy in the prevention of danazol-induced hepatic damage.