Kami-untan-to (KUT) improves cholinergic deficits in aged rats.

The Effects of the kampo (Japanese herbal) medicine, kami-untan-to (KUT)' on the central cholinergic system and passive avoidance behavior in aged rats (2 years old) were examined. When KUT was orally administered to aged rats, mean latency was significantly increased on passive avoidance test of step through type and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity was increased in the frontoparietal cortex. Oral administration of KUT also increased ChAT mRNA levels in the basal forebrain and nerve growth factor (NGF) mRNA levels in the frontoparietal cortex as demonstrated by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. These results suggest that oral administration of KUT improves age-related disturbance of memory via increasing effects of ChAT and NGF. KUT may be useful as a potential therapeutic agent in diseases caused by cholinergic deficit such as senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.