Dobashi I, Tozawa F, Horiba N, Sakai Y, Sakai K, Suda T
Third Department of Medicine, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Neurosci Lett. 1995 Sep 15;197(3):235-8. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(95)11933-n.
Saiko agents, Chinese herbal drugs, stimulate corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) release from the hypothalamus, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) secretion and proopiomelanocortin (the precursor for ACTH) gene expression in the anterior pituitary. In the present study, the effect of intracerebroventricular injection of saikosaponin (SS)-a and -d, two of the main components of saiko agents, on hypothalamic CRF gene expression was examined in pentobarbital-anesthetized rats. Administration of SS-d, 0.2-2.0 micrograms/kg body wt, increased plasma ACTH levels, proopiomelanocortin mRNA levels in the anterior pituitary and the CRF mRNA level in the hypothalamus in a dose-dependent manner, whereas SS-a failed to have an affect on these levels. These findings indicate that SS-d stimulates both CRF gene expression and CRF release, which in turn increases ACTH release and proopiomelanocortin gene expression in the anterior pituitary. Therefore, SS-d is believed to have an important role both in saiko agent-induced CRF release and CRF gene expression in the hypothalamus.
柴胡制剂，即中草药，可刺激下丘脑促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子（CRF）的释放、促肾上腺皮质激素（ACTH）的分泌以及垂体前叶中阿片促黑素皮质素原（ACTH的前体）的基因表达。在本研究中，在戊巴比妥麻醉的大鼠中检测了脑室内注射柴胡皂甙（SS）-a和-d（柴胡制剂的两种主要成分）对下丘脑CRF基因表达的影响。以0.2 - 2.0微克/千克体重的剂量给予SS-d，可剂量依赖性地增加血浆ACTH水平、垂体前叶中阿片促黑素皮质素原mRNA水平以及下丘脑中CRF mRNA水平，而SS-a对这些水平没有影响。这些发现表明，SS-d刺激CRF基因表达和CRF释放，进而增加垂体前叶中ACTH释放和阿片促黑素皮质素原基因表达。因此，SS-d被认为在柴胡制剂诱导的下丘脑CRF释放和CRF基因表达中均起重要作用。
