Abstract
The effects of a herbal medicine, fuscoporia, a kind of fungi, which had been used for traditional medicine by Ainu race in Hokkaido, were studied in SHRSP. Five 7-week-old HRSPwere supplied with cooled hot-water extracts of fuscoporia ad libitum instead of water (test group). Other four 7-week old specimens of SHRSP were supplied with cooled boiled water ad libitum. Both groups were fed with the normal rat chow for 60 days (control group). On the 30th and 60th days the blood pressure and heart rate were measured on the tail. On the end of the final measurements thd venous blood was sampled from abdominal vein under ethyl-ether anesthesia and leparatomy. Hearts werre removed, weighed and used for the capillary analysis by the use of the double staining method for enzyme expressions of alkaline phosphatase and dipeptidylpeptidase IV. The mean arterial blood pressure was 196±14 mmHg in the control group and 154±31 mmHg in the test group on an average and ±S.D. (p=0.020). The number in leukocytes was 4.55±0.92 x103/μl vs.5.98±0.50 x103 /μl, respectively (p=0.032). The content in HbA1c showed a trend of decrease (0.20±0.14% vs. 0.082± 0.04%, p=0.078). No clear changes were found in heart weight, heart rate, red blood cell number, total cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL. Also in the capillary network no significant differnce could be seen by the double staining method. Although the improved variables are limmited, hot water soluble fraction of fuscoporia seems to improve several physiological functions in SHRSP. [Jpn J Physiol 55 Suppl:S88 (2005)]
