Medicina Alternativa e Integrativa

Background: Ionic detoxification (ID) or ionic water bath treatment is a simple alternative method to improve health but lacks scientific evidence. It is hypothesized that regular ID treatment can increase the excretion of toxic molecules from the body and improve metabolic disorders including obesity.

Methods: To investigate the effect of ID treatment on high-fat diet-induced obesity and fatty liver, male Wistar rats were fed a low-fat control diet, a high-fat (HF) diet, or a HF diet with ID treatment (3 times/week) for 11 weeks. Triglyceride contents and fatty acid metabolic genes in perirenal adipose tissue and liver were determined.

Results: Rats fed the HF diet had significantly higher body weight, liver weight, and adipose tissue (perirenal and epididymal) weight than did animals fed the low-fat diet. ID treatment significantly reduced body weight and perirenal adipose tissue weight induced by the HF diet. In addition, ID treatment reduced hepatic cholesterol and triglyceride contents. In liver, ID treatment reduced fatty acid synthesis (acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase mRNA) more significantly than fatty acid oxidation (carnitine palmitoyl-transferase 1 and acyl CoA oxidase mRNA). In perirenal adipose tissue, ID treatment increased the lipolysis rate and reduced the triglyceride level. However, ID treatment had no significant effects on lipogenesis gene expression or adipose size in perirenal adipose tissue.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that regular ID treatment may have beneficial effects on reducing obesity and fatty liver.

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is increasingly widely used as a complementary approach for the treatment of osteoarthritis. In this paper, we examined the implicit prescription patterns behind the Chinese medicinal formulae by using association rules mining and clustering analysis, so as to explore the compatibility regularity of Chinese medicinal prescription in the treatment or control of osteoarthritis.

Methods: This study was based on a participant survey conducted in First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine. The Chinese medicinal prescriptions of inpatients with osteoarthritis were from June 2012 to June 2016. TCM was listed according to the selected medicinal formulae and the added information was organized to establish a database. The association rules and clustering are conducted on SPSS Modeler 14.2. An initial statistical analysis was carried out to categorize the herbs according to their medicinal types, dosage, natures, flavors, channel tropism, and functions. Based on the categorization, the frequencies of occurrences were computed. At the same time, the relationship between TCM and immune and inflammatory markers was analyzed.

Results: The main features from the formulae data are: (1) Warm or cold herbs in the Five Properties category are the most frequently prescribed in the 3609 medicinal formulae. Sweet or bitter herbs in the Five Flavors category in which affinity to the Spleen meridian also are the most frequently prescribed in the 3609 medicinal formulae. (2) Herbs with blood-activating and stasis-resolving, tonifying and replenishing medicinal, water-disinhibiting damppercolating, heat-clearing and detoxicating or expelling wind-damp functions that are frequently prescribed; (3) Association rule analysis extracted three frequently used pairs of herbs, which are Red flower and Tao Ren, Pu Gong Ying and Bai Hua She She Cao, Fu Ling and Ze Xie. (4) Association rule between TCM and Immunoinflammation Index showed that Du Huo and Chen Pi was associated with increased super oxide dismutase enzyme. Mai Ya and Dan Shen was associated with decreased high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, complement C3, complement C4, and Ig(A). Mai Ya and Fu Ling were associated with decreased IgM.

Conclusions: The results indicate that there is a close relationship between osteoarthritis and spleen dysfunctions. These prescriptions focus on herbs that replenishing qi and fortifying the spleen and blood-activating and stasis-resolving. It can also dry dampness to fortify the spleen and clear heat and detoxicating. Meanwhile, he use of tonifying and replenishing herbs and spleen-strengthening herbs also forms a basic pattern of the prescriptions.

Background: In previous studies, Sharma et al. has already isolated an anti-hyperglycemic compound from the fruit pulp of Eugenia jambolana using HPLC and other chromatographic techniques. However, the effect of antihyperglycemic compound (FIIc) on the expression of PPAR gamma, IRS-1 and IRS-2 in high sucrose diet induced type 2 diabetic rats has not been studied so far.

Methods: There were exactly 24 Male Wistar rats were taken and fed on High Sucrose Diet (HSD) for the development of type 2 diabetic animal for 30 weeks. Active compound FIIc was given to group C and Pioglitazone to group D at dose of 20 mg/kg of b.w. orally for 30 weeks respectively. Blood was drawn for the estimation of plasma glucose and serum insulin at week o and at week 30 from retro orbital plexus. At the end of the study animal were sacrificed and organs including pancreas and skeletal muscles were isolated and stored at -80°C. Total RNA was isolated by using Trizol method and expression of PPAR gamma, IRS-1 and IRS-2 was quantified and compared among the study groups by Real Time PCR.

Results: After treatment with FIIc for 30 weeks we found a significant reduction in post prandial blood glucose levels in group C rats compared to group B. Serum insulin was also reduced in group C rats compared to group B. In skeletal muscles the mRNA expression of PPAR γ and IRS-1 was found to be 2.48 fold and 2.56 fold increased respectively as compared to group B. Similarly the mRNA expression of IRS-2 in pancreas was found to be 2.69 folds increased as compared to group B.

Conclusion: FIIc treatment for 30 weeks improves glycemic control and insulin sensitivity by increasing the mRNA expression of PPAR γ, IRS-1 and IRS-2.