Red Ginseng On Diabetic Retinopathy In Rats

Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common and serious microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM),and the main reason leading to blindness as well. The cause of the disease has yet to be determined. In addition, there are no definite and effective measures to prevent it in the early stage.To study the cause of the disease and to find effective drug are the hot spot in each country's ophthalmology . The research of the mechanism involves in biochemistry , molecular biology and blood dyscrasia,but it's center still is high blood sugar which causes a series changes of ischemia and hypoxia. Thanks to its peculiar theory and treatment, traditional Chinese medicine has achieved some success in the prevention and treatment of DR. Red ginseng has much therapeutic value in terms of pharmacology, and it is proved to be very effective in dealing with DM. Therefore,an attempt is made in this paper to construct a rat model of DM to made a further research into the mechanism of Red ginseng in the prevension of DR in its early stage.Methods: The animal model of diabetes mellitus was set up by a single intraverous injection of streptozotozin (65mg.kg-1) on rats. Melted Red ginseng powder (1.5g /kg.d-1) was fed to the rats. 210 days later, the rats were killed so that it's blood could be drawn from the artery to test malondialdehyde (MDA), superroxide dismutase (SOD) and the ability of scavenging the oxygen free radicals. Meanwhile, retinal digect preparations were observed with light micro scope and transmission electronic microscope, and the number of pericytes was counted. The expression of fibronectin (FN), laminin (LN) and E-selectin were observed. Immunological histochemistry assay was used for quantitative analysis. SPSS was used for statistical analysis.Reaults:(1) Compared with the model group, the content of glucose in Ginseng group was decreased evidently (p∠0.01~0.05).(2) Compared with the model group, the content of MDA in Ginseng group was decreased evidently (p∠0.05 ). (3) There was no significant diffrence between the content of SOD and the ability of scavenging the oxygen free ridicals in model group and Ginseng group. (4) Seven months later, DM rats displayed some early symptoms of DR, such as extensive pericyte loss, endothelial cell proliferation, pericyte ghost, acelluar capillary and apoptis of endothelial cell. After treatment of red Gingeng, the retinopathy has improved remarkably. (5) Compared with the model group, the expression of FN in Ginseng group was decreased evidently(p∠0.05), but there was no significant diffrence of LN.(6) Compared with the model group,the expression of E-selectin in Ginseng group was decreased evidently (p∠0.05 ).Conclusion: Early treatment with Red ginseng may be helpful in delaying or possible inhibiting the underlying cause of diabetic retinopathy. Red ginseng has the effect of decreasing glucose, reducing damage of retina from oxidation. Red ginseng can restrain the super expression of extracellular matrix(FN,LN) and E-selction.