Objectives Effects of an extract of Chinese herbal medicine, including Honeysuckle, Poria, Licorice, Carambola fruit and others, on the activity of choline acetyltransferase and morphology changes of brain in mice induced by aluminum poisoning.
Methods Twenty mice were divided into 4 groups, a normal control group, a model control group and 2 experiment groups. The model control group and two experiment groups were fed with a diet containing aluminum chloride for 3 months to establish a model of senile dementia (alzheimer disease, AD). The AD model was established after 2 months.The mice in experiment group 1 and group 2 were treated daily for a month by lavage with different concentration of a Chinese traditional medicine preparation. The model control group and normal control group were treated with equal volume of distilled water daily. The activity of choline acetyl transferase (ChAT), acetyl cholinesterase (AchE) and aluminum content in brain homogenate, the pathological change of brain and serum cholesterol were examined.
Results The activity of ChAT in experiment group 1 and group 2 was higher than the model control group (P < 0.01);the activity of AchE was not different among groups (P < 0.05). Serum cholesterol and aluminum in brains were lower in the experiment groups than the model control group (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively).Diffuse degeneration, necrosis, nuclear pyknosis in neural cells and glial cells of cerebral cortex and hippocampus and micro-encephalomalacia in brains were less in experiment groups than the model control group.
Conclusions The activity of acetylcholine transferase in the brain of aluminum poisoning model groups was obviously lower than the normal control group; the content of aluminum in the brain of three model groups was significantly higher than the normal control group. The degeneration and necrosis of nerve cells in cerebral cortex and hippocampus were improved significantly in two experiment groups.
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