| With the acceleration of people’s work and living and intensification of competitions in recent years, the incidences of those mental diseases that severely damage human’s physical and mental health such as depression and anxiety are on the rise year by year, attracting wide attention from the international community. Anxiety is a kind of mental disease, and patients with anxiety are susceptible to negative emotions and physiological responses. Studies have shown that patients with anxiety account for about 4%～6% of the world’s total population. Surveys have found that 4.1% of Chinese people suffer from anxiety in their life, and if no pertinent treatment is provided for a long time,40% ～ 50% of patients would have depression. Therefore, the treatment of depression have been attracting increasing attention from wide clinical medical personnel. New antianxiety western medicines emerge one after another. For example,5-hydroxy tryptamine reuptake inhibitors have a definite curative effect. However, these drugs show no obvious improvements in patients’ cognitive function and anxiety symptoms, and their adverse effects on the digestive, central nervous and vegetative nervous systems get more attention now. With a high recurrent rate, anxiety is an obstinate multifactorial disease that requires long-term treatment. The adverse effects of western medicines often lead to low treatment compliance and thus affect the clinical effect. The present research finds that traditional Chinese medicines have the same clinical curative effect as that of conventional western medicine for the treatment of anxiety. Traditional Chinese medicine argues that the liver is associated with wood and governs dredging, which adjusts the Qi Dynamic and emotions and strengthens the spleen. And the spleen is associated with earth and governs transportation and transformation. It transforms and generates Qi and blood to nurture the acquired foundation. The liver governs dredging and is very likely to lose control over dredging, which is further divided into insufficient dredging and excessive dredging. Insufficient dredging causes liver qi fail to flow smoothly and Qi dynamic stasis leads to the syndrome of "liver depression". Common symptoms include fullness in chest and hypochondrium, preference for sighing, emotional depression or irritability, abdominal distention, reduced appetite, women’s irregular menstruation and so on. Excessive dredging results in reversed flow of qi, and the common symptoms are irritability, insomnia and dreaminess, fullness and pains in head and even sudden collapse. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the liver and spleen depend on each other in physiology, that is, the liver become smooth because of the spleen, while the spleen flourishes because of the liver. These two organs are connected in pathology. Liver depression will weaken the spleen, so it is common to treat the liver and spleen together. The liver that governs dredging is closely associated with the neuro-endocrine-immune network, while the spleen is connected with the digestive system and involves in multiple systems and organs, including the neuro-endocrine-immune network. Failure of liver to convey and disperse and dysfunction of spleen in transport are closely associated with the abnormalities in the neuro-endocrine-immune network caused by the stimulations from internal and external environments as well as social and psychological factors. Since there is a certain association between the symptoms of the syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency as well as its biological foundation and the clinical manifestations of anxiety as well as its physiological and pathological mechanisms, researches starting with the syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency are of certain value. As a typical prescription for the treatment of the syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency, as well as a common prescription to treat emotional diseases in traditional Chinese medicine, Xiaoyao Powder’s pharmacodynamic effects act on the neuroendocrine system, the digestive system, the immune system, the blood system and so on. It should be noted that Xiaoyao Powder can improve the immunity of the body following stress damage, and its effect and dosage depend on each other.Obestatin is a newly-discovered energy regulating peptide and ingestion regulating peptide, consisting of 23 amino acid residues, with high expression in the stomach, jejunum, ileum, hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Its receptor might be GRP39. Obestatin can inhibit ingestion, lower bodyweight, reduce gastric emptying and inhibit intestinal contractions, affect sleeping, regulate endocrine, etc. Obestatin and growth hormone come from the same pro-peptide and they are the products of different expressions of the same gene. Generally, ghrelin can balance ingestive behavior and energy. Recent researches emphasize that ghrelin can regulate many functions of the brain, including learning, memory, motivation and stress reaction, anxiety and emotion. Many papers have discussed that recent researches on animals and human beings indicate that the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by growth hormone will affect anxiety and emotional disorders such as depression and fear. by regulating growth hormone in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and relevant stress behaviors, including Edingar’s nucleus with a protruding center, hippocampus, amygdaloid nucleus, locus coeruleus and ventral tegmental area. Pressure regulating behaviors are associated with motivation, fear, anxiety, depression and appetite. Therefore, we review the potential role of ghrelin in regulating these relevant behaviors as a pressure feedback signal. Finally, we briefly introduce the key points of important researches in the future, thus helping us to better understand potential ghrelin therapies for the treatment of stress responses and relevant diseases.Objective:Based on the established model of rats with chronic restrained stress anxiety, this research project is to discuss the association between Ghrelin and anxiety disorder as well as the regulating role of Xiaoyao Powder and provide theoretical bases for the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorder through observations on rats’behavioristics of the anxiety disorder model and the Ghrelin in gastrointestinal tract.Methods:(1) 20 male rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: normal group, model group, western medicine group and TCM group. The rats in the normal group were fed normally, while those in each other group were restrained for 3h each day to establish a chronic restrained stress model of rats with anxiety disorder. A the same time, the normal group were given intragastric administration of normal saline, the TCM group Xiaoyao Poweder, and the western medicine group fluoxetine. The modeling and treatment lasted for 14 days in total. The success of the modeling was assessed by observing rats’macroscopic representations, body weights, the elevated plus-maze test (EPM) and novelty suppressed feeding test (NSF). (2) Fundi of stomach of rats were sampled after sacrificing rats in each group at the end of the 14-day modeling period. The changes of Ghrelin in the fundi of stomach of rats in each group as well as the regulating role of Xiaoyao Powder were observed by Elisa testing.Results:(1) The body weight result of each group:At 7’" after modeling, the body weight of model group was lower than that of normal group, there being significant difference(P<0.01), while body weight of the fluoxetine group and Xiaoyao Powder group were both higher than that of normal group, there being significant differences (P< 0.05, P<0.01). At 14th after modeling, the body weight of fluoxetine group was higher than that of model group, there being significant differences (P< 0.05). (2) The behavioristics result of each group:① At 14th after modeling, the open arms entrance times of model group was less than that of normal group, there being significant dif ference (P<0.01), while the open arms entrance times of fluoxetine group and Xiaoyao Powder group were both more than those of model group, there being differences (P<0.05, P<0.01). ② At 14th after modeling, the open arms detention durations of model group was less than that of normal group, there being difference (P<0.05), while the open arms detention durations of fluoxetine group and Xiaoyao Powder group were both longer than those of model group, there being differences (P<0.05, P<0.01). ③ At 14th after modeling, the total distance of model group was shorter than that of normal group, there being significant difference (P<0.01). (3) ①The Ghrelin in the fundi of stomach in the model group was greatly lowered than that of the normal group (P<0.01), while there was significant difference between the Xiaoyao Powder group and the fluoxetine group (P<0.05); compared with the model group, the Ghrelin in the Xiaoyao Powder group was significantly increased than (P<0.01), but that in the fluoxetine group showed no obvious change (P>0.05); compared with the Xiaoyao Powder group, the Ghrelin in the fluoxetine group was significantly decreased. ②Model group rats stomach Obestatin levels higher than normal group, a significant difference (P<0.05), but xiaoyaosan group rats stomach Obestatin levels lower than the model group, a significant difference (P<0.05). fluoxetine group lower than the model group, but There was no statistical difference. ③ Model group rats duodenum Obestatin levels higher than normal group, a significant difference (P<0.05), but xiaoyaosan group rats duodenum Obestatin levels lower than the model group, but There was no statistical difference. fluoxetine group rats duodenum Obestatin levels lower than the model group, a significant difference (P<0.01).Conclusions:(1) The 14-day chronic restrained stress method can successfully build a rat model of anxiety disorder. (2) Both Xiaoyao Powder and fluoxetine can improve the Ghrelin in gastrointestinal tract of rats with anxiety disorder. |
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