Premature ovarian failure（POF） is a kind of gynecological disease that causes amenorrhea, infertility, menopause and urogenital symptoms. Currently hormone replacement therapy（HRT） is the most popular choice for women with POF to get rid of menopausal syndrome. However, as the popularization of Chinese herbs made Chinese medicine（CM） shine new lights, physicians are able to treat POF with both meno-herbs and integrated therapy. HRT has its own indications and contraindications. For example, unexplained vaginal bleeding, acute liver damage, liver dysfunction, vascular embolization, and breast cancer are all contraindications of HRT, and CM is taken by more physicians as an adjuvant therapy. This review, including a range of common Chinese herbs and formulations according to the existing literature, provides a general description of CM treating POF from the aspects of mechanisms and clinical application. It also highlights acupuncture as a unique physiotherapy for POF. Although the validity of CM has been supported by the evidence of many preclinical trials, clinical trials and meta-analysis, the adverse events with CM therapy still exist and no guarantee has been made for its safety. This review concludes the updated information for CM treating POF contributing to further studies.e
LIN JingLI Xue-lianSONG HuiLI QianWANG Ming-yanQIU Xue-minLI Da-jinWANG Ling
Chinese medicine (CM) has been used in clinical treatment for thousands of years in China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. CM is at present attracting many attentions around the world for reproductive health care and disease prevention, including treatment of female infertility. This review focuses on the CM treatment for female infertility patients, and supplies a summary on the efficacy, safety, and mechanism of some Chinese herbal medicines, herbal medicine-derived active compounds, and acupuncture. A large number of researches have reported that CM could alleviate or even cure female infertility by regulating hormone, improving reproductive outcome of in vivo fertilization, affecting embryonic implantation, curing polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, relieving mental stress, and regulating immune system. Meanwhile, a few studies claimed that there was little adverse reaction of CM in randomized controlled trials. However, up to present there is a lack of adequate evidences with molecular mechanistic researches and randomized controlled trials to prove the CM as an effective and safe treatment for infertility. Thus, utility of CM as a complementary medicine will be a feasible method to improve the outcome of female infertility treatment.
Objective： To evaluate the effect of Heyan Kuntai Capsule （和颜坤泰胶囊, HYKT） on the ovarian function of aged mice and expressions of cohesion complexes in oocytes. Methods： Twenty-five 9-month-old female C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into 5 groups by block randomization method （n=5 per group）, including the control group （saline）, 17β-estradiol group [E2, 100 μg/（kg·d）], and low-, medium-, and high- dose of HYKT groups [0.3, 0.9, 2.7 g/（kg·d）, respectively]. All mice were treated by intragastric administration for 4 weeks. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and anti-VASA staining were used to detect the amounts of follicles. The apoptosis of follicles was measured by anti-gamma H2A histone family member X （γ, H2AX） staining and TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labeling （TUNEL） assay. The density of cohesin subunits, REC8 meiotic recombination protein （REC8）, structural maintenance of chromosome （SMC） 1 β and SMC3 in oocytes were evaluated by immunofluorescent staining. Results： After administration of E2 and high-dose of HYKT, the total number of follicles as well as the number of primordial and primary follicles were significantly increased （P〈0.05）. Anti-γ/H2AX staining and TUNEL assay demonstrated that high-dose of HYKT and E2 partly suppressed the apoptosis of follicles （P〈0.05）. Furthermore, it showed an increased trend in the levels of REC8 and SMC1 β, after administration with E2 and HYKT, and no obvious change in the level of SMC3. Conclusion： HYKT could enhance the number of follicles, suppress apoptosis of oocytes and have a trend to elevate the meiotic-specific cohesin subunits （REC8 and SMC1 β） in oocytes of aged mice, indicating a beneficial effect on the ovarian function in terms of the quantity and quality of follicles.
