Effect of Nourishing "Yin"-Removing "Fire" Chinese herbal mixture on hypothalamic kisspeptin expression in female precocious rats.

J Ethnopharmacol. 2009 Nov 17;

Authors: Sun Y, Perry GN, Yu J, Chen B, Tian Z

AIM: The present study aims to investigate the effect of Nourishing "Yin"-Removing "Fire" herbal mixture, a Chinese herb-based formulation, on hypothalamic kisspeptin expression in danazol-induced female precocious model rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into intact normal (N), central precocious puberty (CPP) model (M), vehicle without CPP (V), CPP model exposed to herbal mixture (HM) and CPP model exposed to saline (S) groups. At postnatal day 5, a single subcutaneous injection of 300mug of danazol was administered to induce CPP model rats. From P15, rats in the HM group were continuously gavaged with the 1ml/50g body weight mixture, until 2 consecutive regular estrous cycles were established. The hypothalamic Kiss-1 expression was detected by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The day of vaginal opening and establishment of two regular estrous cycles were delayed in the HM group compared with M and S groups (P<0.05, respectively). The level of hypothalamic Kiss-1 mRNA and the number of kisspeptin-immunoreactive (kisspeptin-ir) cells in the arcuate nucleus (ARC), preoptic area (POA) and periventricular nucleus (PeN), were decreased significantly in the HM group compared with the M and S groups (P<0.01, respectively) on the day of onset-puberty. These results indicate that the kisspeptin signaling pathway might be involved in the effect of herbal mixture treatment on CPP.

BOTTOM LINE: This is yet another example of highly refined bio-pathway therapy research going on in the complementary and alternative ethnopharmacology world. Taking an herb and seeing a result is not a simple process folks. It does not just go A ==> B. You need a PhD to understand the details here, so don't worry if it seems like gibberish to you. The point is that the kisspeptin/KISS1R system has a crucial role in the initiation of sexual maturationacross mammalian species and maintenance of the normal reproductivefunction. Chinese TCM components may help unlock the problems surrounding "precocious" or early puberty. In addition,understanding kisspeptin and KISS1R physiology may aid the developmentof new reproductive therapies, both promoting fertility and contraception.