• Toxicological Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.265-274
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• 1997

Uhwangchungsimwon(UC) is widely used as a herbal medicine on various circulatory disorders in Korea. The objective of this investigation was to characterize the acute, subacute hepatotoxic potency of orally administered UC in rats. In the acute and short-term studies, male rats of 150~170g were gavaged with 0, 7.5 g/kg once daily for up to 1, 5, 10 consecutive days. No differences in body weight, serum enzyme activities, absolute and relative liver weight and histopathological examination on liver between control and UC-fed groups were found. In the subacute study, UC was administered orally to both sexes of rats for 30 days(0, 1.875, 3.75 or 7.5 g/kg/day). There were no-doserelated hepatotoxic signs of general symptoms, body weight gain, water consumption and serum biochemical analysis. Slight decreases of food consumption observed at 3.75 and 7.5 g/kg groups of both sexes were due to be full of UC fed. Gross necropsy and histopathology revealed no evidence of hepatotoxicity related to UC. Our data indicate that hepatotoxicity was not caused by administration of UC up to 7.5 g/kg/dayfor 30 days in rats.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 1995

Clofibrate, a peroxisome proliferator, is hepatocarcinogenic in rats in a dose-dependent manner. A total of 70 male and female F344 rats, 5-week-old, were divided into three groups. Rats were fed clofibrate at 0, 0.25, or 0.5% in diet for 30 days. All rats were anesthetized with $CO_2$, blood samples were taken by cardiac puncture for hematology and clinical chemistry, and the rats were killed by exsanguination. Livers, kidenys, pancreas, adrenal glands, spleen, heart, lungs, thyroid gland, reproductive organs, and digestive organs were removed, weighed, later processed, and embedded with paraplast for histological examination. The relative liver and kidney weights with respect to final body weight in the clofibrate-treated group were significantly increased compared with those of control group at all dose levels (p<0.01). It has been suggested that clofibrate may influence on hepatotoxicity by increases in peroxisomal proliferation.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.94-98
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• 2000

Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) caused 100%, 50% and 20% mortality rates among rats injected with 40 mg, 30 mg and 20 mg/100g. b.w. respectively; while the morta]ity rates were decreased to 50%, 20% and 10% when Panax ginseng (2 mg/100g. b.w.) injected with TC during 72 hrs. post-injection. Subacute-toxicity study demonstrated that TC caused severe hepato-nephrotoxicity (demonstrated by biochemical analysis of serum including: transferases , alkaline phosphatase, total protein, glucose, cholesterol urea and creatinine) in rats injected i.p. with 10 mg and 5 mg/100g. b.w. for 7 days of daily injection . These signes of toxicity were greatly diminished by P. ginseng addition to TC doses.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.209-217
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• 2003

To investigate the effects of low dosed microcystin -LR (MCLR) on the initial stage of subacute hepatotoxicity in vivo, male Sprague-Dawley rats after weanling were divided in four groups. The orally treated group (OG) was administered orally by 1 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg B.W. at an interval of three days. The free group (FG) has taken the drinking water including 1 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L freely and the control group (CC) was only treated with 0.9％ saline solution All groups were treated for a period of 3 weeks. There was a significant correlation in body growth rate between OG and FC and especially, a deterioration of the growth of spleen was observed in the FG after 5 days. The protein levels were also decreased in OG and FG after 9 days. Level of total fat was increased to the 9th day but again decreased up to the initial level. High hemolysis of the isolated erythrocytes occurred only in OG. Activities of ${\gamma}$-G7 of 0G and FG were higher twice-fold than CG, but the values of OG were already higher at the first treatment day. No significant change in aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity was shown in all groups, but the activity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was slightly increased at the beginning state. There were much similarities in the results of OG and FG. except the growth inhibition of spleen in FG. It may be concluded that long -term effects of the low doses of mycrocystins in animals including human being can lead to serious health problems, especially to liver and spleen.