Morphological analysis on the adrenal zona fasciculata of Ginseng, Ginsenoside Rb1 and Ginsenoside Rg1 treated mice.
Morphological analysis was performed on the adrenal cortex of depressed mice which received repeated administrations of Ginseng extract or Ginsenoside Rb1 or Ginsenoside Rg1 in order to follow the behaviour of the gland. The left gland was fixed for usual stains and cell measurements of both treated and control adrenal cortex were made on twenty central sections. The outlines of cells from the zona fasciculata, in which nucleus was evident, were traced at 625X using a drawing tube. Cell areas were computed from these drawings by means of image analysis (Optilab software). Our results show that: 1) Ginseng extract administration produces a significant increase in the zona fasciculata cell size with respect to controls. The distribution of soma sizes is generally to the right of the spectrum showing a considerable decrease in cells of small size and a similar increase in cells of intermediate and large size with respect to controls; 2) in Ginsenoside-administered animals, although the mean cell areas is not significantly altered, the distribution of cell sizes shows significant differences between normal and treated animals. It is commonly recognized that mean cell area is in strict connection with cell activity: therefore Ginseng extract may be thought to stimulate adrenal cell activity while the two Ginsenosides have an effect which do not lead to significant changes in mean cell size.
Buffi
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O
Istituto di Scienze Morfologiche, Università di Urbino, Milano.
Ciaroni
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S
Guidi
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L
Cecchini
T
T
Bombardelli
E
E
D000818:Animals; D036145:Ginsenosides; D006984:Hypertrophy; D051379:Mice; D005894:Panax; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D012503:Saponins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D015383:Zona Fasciculata / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology
D036145:Ginsenosides; D010936:Plant Extracts; D012503:Saponins; C035054:ginsenoside Rg1