Anti-Vascular Dementia Effects Of Puerariae Isoflavone

The effects of anti-vascular dementia of Puerariae Isoflavone (PIF) and the mechanism of this medicine were preliminarily studied. The effects of Daidzein (DZ), one of components of PIF, on the memory of mice were also studied in this paper. The results indicated PIF reduced numbers of errors in mice performed cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in step-down test and step-through test. PIF decreased the time of swimming from the original area to the goal area and increased the numbers of right reflects in water maze in mice performed incomplete occlusion of bilateral carotid common artery in company with vagus nerves. Additionally, PIF was as effective in this model of mice as that of in mice performed ischemia-reperfusion in step-down test and step-through test. The numbers of working memory errors (WME), reference memory errors (RME) and total errors (TE) were increased obviously and time of fetching- food (Time) was prolonged markedly in rats performed bilateral carotid common artery occlusion (BCCAO) in eight-arm radial maze. These changes were prevented by administration of PIF. In Morris water maze PIF shortened the latency of searching the hidden platform in directional swirnming test, increased the time spent swimming in the target quadrant during 90s in probe test, and reduced the latency of arriving to the goal platform in working memory test. Moreover, PIF prolonged the latency of entry into dark room in step-through test in rats performed BCCAO. PIF prevented the nerve cell from the ischemic damages on the basis of pathology. The increase of nitric oxide (NO) and enhance of NOsynthase (NOS) activity in mice performed cerebral ischemia-reperfusion were significantly prevented by administration of PIF. PIF inhibited the depression of the lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, the enhancement of lactic acid (LA) and depression of calcium pump (Ca2+-ATPase ) activity in the cerebrum of the rats performed BBCAO. PIF ameliorated indexes of blood rheology including high, mid and low whole blood viscosity, whole blood reduction viscosity and erythrocyte electrophoresis time(EET).Summarizing all the experimental results, PIF showed anti-vascular dementia effects. The mechanism maybe involved inhibiting toxicity of NO, releasing the obstruction of energy metabolism, improving the blood rheology.DZ reduced numbers of errors and prolonged the latency of mice performed cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in step-down test and step-through test. The time of swimming from the original area to the goal area was decreased and the numbers of right reflect were increased by DZ administration in water maze. Additionally, DZ significantly antagonized the amnesia induced by scopolamine (SCPL), NaNO2 and ethanol in mice. The increase of nitric oxide (NO) and enhance of NO synthase (NOS) activity in mice performed cerebral ischemia-reperfusion were significantly prevented by administration of DZ. These results indicated that DZ had the effect of improving memory in mice as one effective component of PIF.