Long-term Treatment with Oriental Medicinal Herb Artemisia princeps Alters Neuroplasticity in a Rat Model of Ovarian Hormone Deficiency.
- Author:
Hyun Bum KIM
1
;
Byeong Jae KWON
;
Hyun Ji CHO
;
Ji Won KIM
;
Jeong Woo CHON
;
Moon Ho DO
;
Sang Yong PARK
;
Sun Yeou KIM
;
Sung Ho MAENG
;
Yoo Kyoung PARK
;
Ji Ho PARK
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Artemisia princeps; Oriental medicine; ovariectomy; long-term depression (LTD); hippocampal synaptic plasticity
- MeSH: Animals; Artemisia*; Bone Density; Depression; Dietary Supplements; Ethanol; Far East; Female; Flowers; Hippocampus; Medicine, East Asian Traditional; Medicine, Traditional; Models, Animal*; Neuronal Plasticity*; Ovariectomy; Pathology; Plants, Medicinal*; Plastics; Rats; Synapses
- From:Experimental Neurobiology 2015;24(1):71-83
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Artemisia princeps (AP) is a flowering perennial used as a traditional medicine and dietary supplement across East Asia. No study has yet assessed its effects on synaptic plasticity in hippocampus and much less in a model of ovarian hormone deficiency. We examined the influence of chronic oral AP ethanol extract treatment in ovariectomized rats on the induction of long-term depression in a representative synapse (CA3-CA1) of the hippocampus. Ovariectomized rats demonstrated lower trabecular mean bone mineral densities than sham, validating the establishment of pathology. Against this background of pathology, AP-treated ovariectomized rats exhibited attenuated long-term depression (LTD) in CA1 relative to water-treated controls as measured by increased field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (fEPSP) activation averages over the post-stimulation period. While pathological significance of long-term depression (LTD) in ovariectomized rats is conflicting, that AP treatment significantly affected its induction offers justification for further study of its influences on plasticity and its related disorders.
