Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine Radix Astragali, Fructus Aurantii and Rhizoma Cypei Extracts on c-Fos Expression in the Aging Rat Hippocampus Induced by Exercise

Fatigue is a complex interaction between the peripheral systems and the central nervous system and is often a problem in aging individuals. In accordance with the view of traditional Chinese medicine, treatment of fatigue, as induced by heavy exercise, is related to the restoration of Qi in the body. In order to investigate the effects of two formulations of traditional Chinese medicine, namely the Qi-supplementing (QS) medicine containing radix astragali and the QS formulation plus Qi-rectifying (QR) medicine containing radix astragali, fructus aurantii and rhizoma cypei, which are often used in elderly individuals, aging rats which were exercised for 5 weeks were treated with the above two formulations. Immunocytochemistry revealed that the number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons in the CA1 and CA2 regions of the hippocampus was significantly increased after heavy exercise. Treatment with the QS + QR formulation but not the QS formulation was able to downregulate the number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons in the CA1 and CA2 regions of the hippocampus to the levels of the nonexercise controls. These results indicate that the Chinese medicine formulations, notably the QS + QR formulation, are effective in the restoration of normal levels of Fos protein expression in the central nervous system after heavy exercise. These results have important implications in the treatment of fatigue in aging individuals using formulations of traditional Chinese medicine.