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Original Article

Exp Neurobiol 2008; 17(2): 55-62

Published online December 31, 2008

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Protective Effect of Shenqi-wan on Traumatic Brain Injury-induced Delayed Apoptosis in Rat Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus

Oh-Bong Kwon1, Hyung-Ho Lim1, Yun-Kyung Song1, Jin-Woo Lee2, Young-Sick Kim2 and Chang-Ju Kim2*

1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyungwon University, Sungnam 461-701, 2Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee Universty, Seoul 130-701, Korea

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 82-2-961-0407, FAX: 82-2-964-2195
e-mail: changju@khu.ac.kr

Abstract

Shenqi-wan, Oriental herbal medicine formulation, has been traditionally used for delayed mental and physical development in children, complications of diabetes, and glomerulonephritis. In the present study, the protective effect of the aqueous extract of Shenqi-wan against traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the rat hippocampal dentate gyrus was investigated. For this study, step-down avoidance task, terminal deoxynuclotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, Bax immunohistochemistry, and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) immunohistochemistry were conducted. In the present results, it was shown that apoptotic cell death and cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus were significantly increased following TBI in rats and that the aqueous extract of Shenqi-wan suppressed the TBI-induced increase in apoptosis and cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus. Based on the present results, it is possible that the aqueous extract of Shenqi-wan has a neuroprotective effect on TBI-induced neuronal cell death.

Keywords: Shenqi-wan, hippocampal dentate gyrus, traumatic brain injury, apoptosis, cell proliferation