• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.143-151
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• 2010

In Vivo and In vitro antispasmodic effects of Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San, a Traditional Korean Polyherbal Medicineconsisted of 7 types of herbs were observed in the present study. To clarify the effects of Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San, on accelerating small intestinal movement induced by the stimulation of cholinergic neurotransmission, we evaluated the effects of Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San on In vivo carbachol (an acetylcholinergic agent)-accelerated mice small intestinal transit and on In vitro contractions induced by low-frequency electrostimulation, KCl, histamine or acetylcholine using isolated guinea pig ileum. To induce the acceleration of mice small intestinal transit, Carbachol 1 mg/kg was once subcutaneously dosed 15min before last administration of the test drugs. In the present study, Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San 500, 250 and 125 mg/kg or domperidone 20 mg/kg were orally pretreated on the carbachol-accelerated mice small intestinal transit once a day for 7 days and the small intestinal transit rateof activated charcoal powder were monitored. In vitro assays, Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San1, 0.1, 0.01 and 0.001 mg/ml or domperidone $2{\times}10^{-5}M$ were treated 10min before ileal contraction was induced by filed stimulation, acetylcholine, KCl and histamine, and the % changes of contractions were observed compared to the treatment of inducer alone. In spontaneous contraction, the % changes of contractions were observed compared to treatment of vehicle alone at 10min after Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San or domperidone treatment. The efficacy of Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San was compared to those of domperidone. High concentration, 1 mg/ml of Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San was found to decrease the spontaneous contraction of the isolated guinea-pig ileum. In addition, Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San decrease contractions induced by electrostimulation, acetylcholine, histamine and KCl in the isolated guinea-pig ileum. In addition, Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San effectively inhibited the accelerated small intestinal movement induced by carbachol stimulation of cholinergic neurotransmission in In vivo. Based on the results, although the exact molecular or action mechanism and which herbs or compound in Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San are responsible for actions, it was concluded that Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San normalization in the accelerated intestinal motility might be interfere with a variety of muscarinic, adrenergic and histaminic receptor activities or with the mobilization of calcium ions required for smooth muscle contraction non-specificly. Therefore, it is expected that Jun-Si-Baek-Chul-San will be promising as a prescription of clinical treatment of digestive tract disorders such as accelerated the motility of intestine, diarrhea or intestinal painful contractions.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.661-667
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• 2010

Astragali Radix (AR) has been used in traditional medicinal herb, which is known to tonify the qi and blood. It has been asserted to be a tonic that can improve the function of the lungs, adrenal glands and the gastrointestinal tract, increase metabolism, promote healing and reduce fatigue. Also, Plantago asiatica (PA) has the anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antitussive, cardiac, diuretic, expectorant, haemostatic effects, though it is considered to be less powerful than the seed. Recent research is showing that it is promising in lowering cholesterol and controlling diabetes. Obesity is characterized at the cellular level by an increase in the number and size of adipocytes differentiated from fibroblastic preadipocytes in adipose tissue. In the present study, we investigated the effects of 3 to 7 extracts of mixed medicinal herbs (water and ethanol extract of Astragali Radix; ARW and ARE, water and ethanol extract of Plantago asitica; PAW and PAE, and those mixed extracts; ARW+PAE, ARW+PAW and ARE+PAE) on adipogenesis and apoptosis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by MTT assay, Oil-Red-O staining and TUNEL assay. And then, we determined total contents of phenolic compounds and flavonoid compounds in mixed herbal extracts. These result showed that herbal extracts (ARW, PAE and ARW+PAE) affected on adipogenesis and apoptosis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes among 3 to 7 extracts tested. Especially herbal mixed extracts (ARW+PAE) had the highest inhibition on differentiation of preadipocytes and lipoid accumulation of maturing adipocytes. And it did not affect cell viability of mature adipocytes, but herbal mixed extracts (ARW+PAE) increased apoptosis in mature adipocytes, as proved by highest concentration $200\;{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ using TUNEL assay. In addition, contents of total phenoilc compounds and flavonoids showed the highest level in ARE+PAE and PAE than ARW. These results suggest that this main target for adipocyte functions could be effective in improving the metabolic syndrome including obesity.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.540-547
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• 2009

There needs disease-predictable signs in order to enable preventive diagnosis and therapy. Then traditional Chinese medicine applies various medical diagnostic equipments used in western medicine to diagnosing sub-healthy state. But such data are not originated from inherent oriental medicine, and not obtained easily in ordinary clinical practice. This paper is to provide synopsis of the ante-disease diagno-therapeutics partly and to show predictable data based on the facial shapes and signs, especially of gall bladder's versus bladder's body and masculine versus feminine shape. Ante-disease means not only the complete healthy state, but also the state unseen any symptoms in macrographically in the course of outbreak of disease. It contains two stages, first one is the former state of disease and second one is untransmitted state of disease. The patterns of ante-disease consist of latent disease, pre-disease, transmission type like senescent syndrome, abnormal reactive syndrome(變證), syndrome of transmission and transmutation. The classification with gall bladder and bladder type manifests the differences of shape, color and size of each organ in comparison of the universal and standard figures of the human being. On the other hand, the classification with masculine and feminine shape contrasts the innate sexual difference and the shape, characteristics originated from in itself. These two classification theories have their own pathologic types and syndrome types with each disease so that disease-predictable data can be constructed based on such a relationship. In addition, this diagnostic method by facial shapes and signs is able to be applied to whole stages from prenatal to present state of disease even if the cause and inducement are not clear. Ante-disease diagno-theraputic system by Gall Bladder's versus Bladder's Body and Masculine versus Feminine Shape is getting more important in the chronic and internal disease in comparison of the acute and traumatic disease. So this study is able to make up for the limit of diagnosis on ante-disease in the field of oriental medicine clinic.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.651-656
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• 2006

Activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ is known to be a trigger of various cellular disorders including inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Numerous approaches are ongoing within laboratories to identify potential therapeutic agents which inhibit the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation. In this study, we have tested the inhibitory effects of five traditional medicines on the activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ by NIK. Among three medicines which exhibited inhibitory effect on the expression of $NF-{\kappa}B$ repoter plasmid, we investigated further the inhibitory mechanism of Dichroa febrifuga in connection with IKKY activity. Wild type $IKK{\gamma}$ inhibited the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation by NIK but the C-terminal deletion mutant of IKKY did not show the inhibitory effect, indicating that the C-terminal leucine zipper domain of $NF-{\kappa}B$ is important for the inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation. The water extract of Dichroa febrifuga(DFE) also strongly inhibited the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation by NIK. The inhibitory activity of DFE appeared to be independent of the expression of $IKK{\gamma}$, suggesting that the pathways of inhibition by Dichroa febrifuga and $IKK{\gamma}$ are different. Our results suggest that Dichroa febrifuga can be used as a medicine for inhibition of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation in a wide range of cells without relation to the expression of $IKK{\gamma}$.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.310-318
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• 2010

Dioscorea bulbifera is one of the traditional medicinal herb. It commonly used in the treatment of hematemesis, epistaxis, tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis, laryngitis, acute infectious disease in East Asia. In the present study, we have demonstrated the anti-inflammatory effects of Dioscorea bulbifera MeOH extract (DBME) in macrophage cell line. To investigate mechanism of the anti-inflammatory activity, we examined the effects of the lipopolysaccaride (LPS)-induced production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$), pro-inflammatory cytokines and expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), p-inhibitory ${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ (p-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$), and nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) in a murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. The RAW 264.7 cells were cultured in DMEM + serum medium for 24 hrs. After serum starvation for 24 hrs, the cells were treated with DBME 0.03, 0.10, 0.30 mg/$m{\ell}$ for 1 h, followed by stimulation with LPS (1 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$) for activation of immune response. After treatment, cell viability was measured by MTT assay, and NO production was monitored by measuring the nitrite content in culture medium. The protein band of iNOS, COX-2, p-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$, and NF-${\kappa}B$ was determined by immunoblot analysis and levels of cytokine were analyzed by sandwich immunoassays. There were three experimental groups: carrageenan, DBME 0.3, 1.0 g/kg. Rats were administrated either carrageenan (40% PEG) or carrageenan + DBME (0.3, 1.0 g/kg body weight) for 4 days (p.o.). To induce acute paw edema, rats were injected 1% carrageenan (100 ${\mu}{\ell}$/rat, dissolved in sterilized saline). The effect of DBME in the carrageenan-induced rat paw edema. As results, DBME has an inhibitory effect on the production of NO, PGE2, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 and on the expression of iNOS, COX-2, p-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ to nuclear from cytosol. In addition, DBME effectively inhibited the increases of paw edema induced by carrageenan treatment in vivo. These results suggest that DBME can inhibit production of pro-inflammatory mediators and might be a useful source for treatment of acute inflammatory disease.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1134-1141
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• 2010

The standardized education for medical college students not only provides the opportunity to get the exclusive knowledge as a professional but also is the basis of strong professional authority. Korean Oriental medicine has pursued to standardize the education system and curricula away from the traditional education system since the modernization started. And this standardization has worked as the basis of the status advancement of Korean Oriental medicine. Through the standardization of education system and curricula, Korean Oriental medicine has been professionalized and its social status has been heightened, stabilizing itself within the establishment of institution. After this, Korean Oriental medicine has kept pursuing standardization and professionalization in the educational area. It has achieved the professionalization of curricula reflecting the specificity of Korean Oriental medicine, following the model of western medical education. This paper investigated the attitude of Korean Oriental medical doctors toward the current Korean Oriental medical education. In the survey conducted in this study, how the Korean Oriental doctors view the education of Korean Oriental college in the areas such as 'standardization', 'specificity', 'Korean Oriental medical philosophy', 'responsibility', and 'professional ethics'. And the relationship between the demographic variables of Korean Oriental medical doctors and the educational contents which should be emphasized in Korean Oriental medical school has been examined. The subjects of this study were Korean Oriental medical doctors who work as professionals after graduation of Koran Oriental Medical School and, thus, this is a meaningful study in that the contents of education which the Korean Oriental medical doctors think are needed in practice are discussed.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1221-1225
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• 2009

The pulse diagnosis is an important and universally used method in Oriental Medicine. Since the traditional method of palpating the pulse relies on the subjective sense in the fingers of an Oriental Medical Doctor(OMD), there has been continued need for more objective method for pulse diagnosis. Recently, various pulse analyzers have been developed to meet such objective palpation and interpretation. However, most of these attempts were not successful to replace OMD's own palpation by fingers. To improve the performance of the pulse analyzers, one should develop machine-appropriate interpretations for the pulse images in the literature, in addition to the improvement in the repeatability and reproducibility. One of such widely-used pulse images to be interpreted is the floating and sinking pulse. The floating and sinking pulses are the two representative pulse images informing us how strong pressure one should apply to obtain the maximal pulse strength. A previous study suggested a convenient and unified measure for the floating and sinking pulses by defining the coefficient of the floating-sinking pulse(CFS). We found the original definition of the CFS could be erroneous under some situations. To improve the performance, we introduce new CFS algorithm for determining the floating and sinking pulse with a pulse analyzers(3-D MAC). To test the performance of the newly suggested algorithm, we conducted a clinical study comparing the agreement ratio with the floating and sinking pulse diagnosis by the OMDs. We found that, among the subjects who are diagnosed with having either the floating pulse or sinking pulse, the new CFS algorithm showed 55.3% diagnosis rate and 73.0% concordance rate, which are about 3% and 6% improvement in the diagnosis rate and agreement rate, respectively, compared to the original CFS algorithm.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1247-1260
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• 2009

This dissertation aims to study the five tastes in the Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine. Medicinals as well as Foods are classified by the five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent, which can be tasted by the tongue. With the development of the theory dealing with the medicinal properties, some flavors are summarized out of clinical actions of medicinals, therefore, there is a little difference between the flavors of medicinal herbs and the tastes got by tongue. Each taste acts on or has direct influence on a specific vital organ, and each of which has different physiologic actions. Taste also has a long-term or post digestive effect on the body and its metabolism. When each taste is consumed in moderation, it benefits the corresponding organ. Over-indulgence in any taste harms the organ and creates imbalance among the five vital organ systems. The Korean medicinal herbs with same flavor mostly possess similar actions while the medicinal herbs with different flavors show different actions in the treatment, which are shown as follows. Sour has absorbing, consolidating and astringent actions and acts on the liver. Bitter has the actions of drying or resolving dampness, purging and lowering and acts on the heart. Sweet has the nourishing, harmonizing and moistening actions and acts on the spleen. Pungent has an action of dispersing and promoting circulation of gi and blood and acts on the lungs. Salty has the effects of softening hard nodes or masses and promoting defecation, etc and acts on the kidneys. The five organ systems control and support each other. Proper coordination only exists when there is no one organ stronger or weaker than the rest. Since the five tastes have direct influences on the five organs, the diet we take should have a good combination of the five tastes in order to promote internal balance and harmony. They control our well-being and create dietary balance. Excessive consumption of any of these could result in adverse effects. In a word, when the properties of the five tastes respectively are distinguished, their natures and flavors cannot be separately considered. I think the harmonization of food and medicinals should be stressed on good nutritional diet to maintain good health. The traditional belief that food and medicine share the same origin is a part of Korean medicine tradition.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1341-1348
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• 2009

Hoechunyanggyeok-san (HYS) is a traditional oriental herbal medicine widely used for treating inflammatory disorders. Although there are numerous clinical results of HYS reported in the literature of oriental hebal medicine, it has been rarely conducted to evaluate the immuno-biological activity. The present study was conducted to examine the anti-inflammatory effects of HYS extract (HYSE) in vivo and in vitro. To determine the cytotoxic concentration of HYSE, cell viability was tested by MTT assay. All four doses of HYSE (0.01, 0.03, 0.10 and 0.30 mg/ml) had no significant cytotoxicity during the entire experimental period. In order to measure NO levels in culture medium, the cells were treated with $1\;{\mu}g/ml$ of LPS 1h before adding HYSE for 24 h and then culture medium were reacted with Griess reagent. Increased NO production and iNOS expression were detected in LPS-activated cells compared to control. However, these increases were dose-dependently attenuated by treatment with HYSE. LPS plays a key role in leading to the massive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-$\alpha$, IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 in macrophages. Thus, we next determined the levels of these cytokines. HYSE reduced the elevated production of TNF-$\alpha$, IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 by LPS. Moreover, the effects of HYSE were in a dose-dependent manner. In vivo, histopathological study, HYSE effectively inheefed the increases of hind paw skin thicknesses and inflammatory cell infiltrations induced by carrageenan treatment. It, therefore, considered that HYSE will be favorably inheefed the acute edematous inanner. In s. These findings showed that HYSE could have anti-inflammatory effects through the reduction of NO and inflammatory cytokines in macrophage. Furthermore, the reduction of carrageenan-induced paw oedema by HYSE helps to understand its actions on inflammatory conditions.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1034-1038
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• 2007

To examine the difference of health-related quality of life (QoL) of obese patients between before and after treatment of Korean traditional medicine. This study was assessed in 18 obese-women (age 29.72${\pm}$7.38) treated by acupuncture and herbal medicine using SF-36 quality of life questionnaire between January and July 2006, a 36 item instrument yielding 8 dimensions (Social functioning, Role limitation-Physical, Role limitation-Emotion, Mental health, Vitality, Bodily pain, and General health) and a total score. Their weight was measured by Inbody 3.0 (Biospace co. Korea). QoL and body composition was assessed twice at baseline (B) and 4 weeks after treatment. Auricular acupuncture and electrical needle stimulation to abdomen, thigh, and arm fat was used twice a week and complex herb formula was prescribed according to their constitution and symptoms for 4 weeks. Herb medication was taken 2 times a day. Respective variables were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed ranks test and the level set for statistical significance was p <0.05. The mean of the body weight (P=0.000;B64,68${\pm}$6.86, 4 WKs 60.47${\pm}$5.69), fat percentage (P=0.000;B33.14${\pm}$4.86, 4 WKs 30.16${\pm}$5.34), body mass index (P=0.000;B25.18${\pm}$2.44, 4 WKs 23.46${\pm}$2.09) and fat weight (P=0.000;B21.66${\pm}$5.06, 4 WKs 18.41${\pm}$4.57) of some obese patients decreased significantly between before and after treatment for 4 weeks. Physical functioning (P=0.48;B27.06${\pm}$3.17, 4 WKs 28.00${\pm}$1.71), Mental health (P=0.01 ;B18.83${\pm}$5.25, 4 WKs 22.00${\pm}$3.73), Vitality (P=0.028;B13.89${\pm}$3.03, 4 WKs 15.44${\pm}$2.53), Bodily pain (P=.0014;B8.84${\pm}$1.75, 4 WKs 10.15${\pm}$1.78), and the total scores (P=0.001;B104.99${\pm}$12.60, 4 WKs 114.58${\pm}$11.11) of SF-36 were increased significantly after treatments. These data show some differences in QoL and BMI between before and after treatment on obesity and suggest that the treatment with acupuncture and herbal medicine have a positive impact on several domains of QoL of some obese patients. Further randomized clinical trials (RCTs) including follow-up are needed to examine whether acupuncture and herb medicine have a positive effect on QoL of treatment group compared with control group.