女性族群到達了一定年紀，會經歷因月經逐漸減少甚至停止進而引發的各種併發症，例如：肥胖、子宮萎縮、體內氧化壓力增加、血液循環變差、體內雌激素及黃體素接受器表現量發生改變等等。隨著全球逐漸高齡化的趨勢，再加上女性族群平均壽命又高於男性族群。未來，更年期婦女的相關問題勢必成為相當重要的課題。目前常用於治療更年期症狀的西藥卻有不少副作用，因此我們想嘗試副作用較為緩和的中草藥。
中藥複合物B401含有六種中藥成分：人參、黃耆、當歸、地黃、旱蓮草及女貞子，本實驗主要是探討中藥複合物B401是否能改善停經症候群的症狀。首先將去卵巢 (ovariectomize) 小鼠分成四組：控制組分別餵食B401和二次水，以及去卵巢組分別餵食B401和二次水。餵食B401的組別均每天以餵食針餵食30毫克/每公斤體重的B401，餵食持續十天，之後檢測小鼠的子宮重量、體重、體表血流量、活性氧類 (reactive oxygen species, ROS)、子宮中超氧歧化酶 (superoxide dismutase 2, SOD2)、雌激素接受器α / β (estrogen receptor, ER α / β) 與黃體素接受器 (progesterone receptor, PR) 的表現量。研究結果顯示，餵食中藥複合物B401不僅減緩去卵巢導致的小鼠子宮重量、血流、SOD2、ERβ以及PR的減少，也可顯著降低去卵巢鼠體內的自由基、子宮中ERα表現量。結果證實，中藥複合物B401可以作為改善更年期婦女之不適症狀的健康補給品。

Women will go through some complications, such as obesity, uterine shrinking, increase in oxidative stress, decrease in blood flow, change in the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptor, etc, for peri- and postmenopausal women when they come to the certain age.
Along with the aging tendency in the world, and female average life expectancy is higher than male, climacteric syndromes is going to be an important issue in the future, but the Modern Medicine which was usually used to treat them got lots of side effects. We, therefore, intend to try more moderate traditional Chinese medicine.
To evaluate the estrogenic effect of the Chinese herbal formula B401, we examined uterine weight, body weight, blood flow, ROS (reactive oxygen species), SOD2 (superoxide dismutase 2), estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) activation by B401 treatment in vivo ovariectomized mice. The female mice were randomized into four groups: Sham operated group (Sham), saline treated ovariectomized group (OVT) and B401 treated ovariectomized group (B401+OVT). The B401+OVT mice were oral treated with B401 at a dose of 30 mg/kg bw/day for 10 days. Our results showed that oral treatment with the Chinese herbal formula B401 significantly reversed ovariectomy-induced uterine weight reduction. Moreover, the Chinese herbal formula B401 oral treatment significantly increased blood flow, expression of ERβ and PR in the uterus, and decrease in ovariectomized mice ROS, expression of ERα and SOD2 in the uterus. Taken our data together, we suggested that B401 oral treatment could be protective and beneficial for the management of menopausal symptoms.

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