title: [Uniform designed research on the active ingredients assembling of huangqi decoction for inhibition of DMN-induced liver fibrosis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To screen out effective ingredients of Huangqi Decoction (HQD) on dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) induced liver fibrosis and its assembling actions.
  
  
  METHODS
  (1) DMN solution (0. 5%) was peritoneally injected to rats to prepare the liver fibrosis model for 12 times, starting from the 1st day of modeling to the end of the 4th week. Uniform design method with 4-factor 8-level table was used to optimize the proportion of four ingredients from HQD, including astragaloside (AS), astragalus flavonoids (AF), glycyrrhizae acid (GA), and glycyrrhizae flavonoids (GF). Moreover, the changes of hydroxyproline (Hyp) content in the liver issue and the level of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum were observed as screen indices, and the method of regression analysis was used to find out an optimal combination. (2) A further study for comparing and verifying the efficacy of the obtained optimized prescription was conducted by observing the changes of fibrosis pathology, the content of Hyp in the liver tissue and serum enzyme activity after medication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The optimal proportion of AS and GA was 164:48. Compared with the model group, the content of Hyp in the liver tissue and the levels of ALT, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in serum decreased significantly, indicating the inhibiting effect of HQD and the AS/GA combination group on hepatic fibrosis formation (P<0.05). The AS/GA combination group was better than AS/GA used alone group in reducing the content of Hyp in the liver tissue and the level of ALT in serum. Furthermore, the AS/GA combination group was better than the HQD group in reducing the level of ALT in serum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AS and GA were effective ingredients of HQD, and the combination of AS and GA had obvious synergistic effect in reducing liver collagen deposition and decreasing serum ALT activity in DMN-induced liver fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Key Laboratory of Liver and Kidney Diseases, Ministry of Education, Shanghai.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Gao-feng
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D004128:Dimethylnitrosamine / Q000009:adverse effects; D004347:Drug Interactions; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006909:Hydroxyproline / Q000032:analysis; D008106:Liver Cirrhosis, Experimental / Q000097:blood* / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C439205:Huangqin-Tang; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D004128:Dimethylnitrosamine; D006909:Hydroxyproline