Department of General Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Department of Kampo Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Department of Medical Oncology, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa and Department of Pharmacognosy, Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, Miyagi, Japan.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2010 Mar;7(1):87-95. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nem153. Epub 2007 Nov 14.
In women facing menopause, end of menstrual activity is accompanied by lower levels of estrogen and gradual weight gain. Postmenopausal weight gain sounds an alarm for women's health and may lead to hyperlipidemia, a lipid increase and glucose intolerance. These phenomena are connected to lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, arteriosclerosis and metabolic syndrome, making it essential to prevent weight gain in women. A Kampo medicine, Boi-ogi-to, is traditionally used to treat obese conditions, but the mechanism has not yet been investigated. In this experiment, we tested the antiobesity properties of Boi-ogi-to in ovariectomized rats by measuring changes of serum cytokine levels and adipocytokines in fat cells. After treatment with this extract for 6 weeks (20-week-old rats), we found that there was a significant weight decrease in rats treated with Boi-ogi-to as compared with that in the control group. Serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner. Gene expression of adipose tissue in uterus also dose dependently showed a significant increase of TNF-α levels, suggesting that secretion of TNF-α by fat cells might play a role in the ability of Boi-ogi-to to inhibit weight gain. While peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor-γ and adiponectin levels did not show a significant difference as compared with those in the control, levels of mRNA expression showed a tendency to increase dose dependently. Resistin did not show any significant change. These results suggest that Boi-ogi-to might be useful for the prevention of obesity that occurs in women with reduction of estrogen.
在面临绝经的女性中，月经活动结束伴随着雌激素水平降低和体重逐渐增加。绝经后体重增加对女性健康发出警报，可能导致血脂异常、脂质增加和葡萄糖耐量降低。这些现象与高血压、2 型糖尿病、动脉硬化和代谢综合征等与生活方式相关的疾病有关，因此必须预防女性体重增加。一种汉方药，Boi-ogi-to，传统上用于治疗肥胖症，但机制尚未得到研究。在这项实验中，我们通过测量血清细胞因子水平和脂肪细胞中的脂肪细胞因子的变化，测试了 Boi-ogi-to 在去卵巢大鼠中的抗肥胖特性。在用该提取物治疗 6 周（20 周龄大鼠）后，我们发现 Boi-ogi-to 治疗组的大鼠体重明显减轻，与对照组相比。血清肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）-α水平呈剂量依赖性显著升高。子宫脂肪组织的基因表达也呈剂量依赖性显著增加 TNF-α水平，表明脂肪细胞分泌的 TNF-α可能在抑制体重增加方面发挥作用。虽然过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体-γ和脂联素水平与对照组相比没有显著差异，但表达水平显示出剂量依赖性增加的趋势。抵抗素没有显示出任何显著变化。这些结果表明，Boi-ogi-to 可能对预防因雌激素减少而发生的肥胖有用。
