Effects of yokukansan, a traditional Japanese medicine, on memory disturbance and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in thiamine-deficient rats.
Effects of yokukansan (TJ-54) on memory disturbance and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) were investigated in thiamine-deficient (TD) rats which were produced by feeding a TD diet for 37 d. Daily oral administration of TJ-54 (0.5, 1.0 g/kg) ameliorated the memory disturbance, anxiety-like behavior, the increase in aggressive behaviors, the decrease in social behaviors, and several neurological symptoms including opisthotonus observed in TD rats, in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, histopathological examinations showed that TJ-54 inhibited the degeneration of neuronal and astroglial cells in the brain stem, hippocampus and cortex in TD rats. Microdialysis experiments showed that TJ-54 inhibited extracellular glutamate rise in the ventral posterior medial thalamus in TD rats. These results suggest that TJ-54 possesses the preventive or progress inhibitive effect against the development of memory disturbance and BPSD-like behaviors induced by the degeneration of neuronal and astroglial cells resulting from TD. TJ-54 may inhibit glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity as one of mechanisms.
Tsumura Research Laboratories, Tsumura & Co., Ami-machi, Inashiki-gun, Ibaraki 300-1192, Japan. ikarashi_yasushi@mail.tsumura.co.jp
Yasushi
Y
Ikarashi
Seiichi
S
Iizuka
Sachiko
S
Imamura
Takuji
T
Yamaguchi
Kyoji
K
Sekiguchi
Hitomi
H
Kanno
Zenji
Z
Kawakami
Mitsutoshi
M
Yuzurihara
Yoshio
Y
Kase
Shuichi
S
Takeda
D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005658:Fungi; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D019684:Magnoliopsida; D008297:Male; D008518:Medicine, East Asian Traditional; D020835:Medicine, Kampo; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D008517:Phytotherapy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012919:Social Behavior; D013832:Thiamine Deficiency / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C524644:Yi-Gan San; D018698:Glutamic Acid