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Scutellaria baicalensis has been extensively employed for the clinical treatment of hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, hypertension, dysentery, inflammatory diseases, and the common cold. The present study was performed to investigate the anti-obesity and anti-dyslipidemia effect of Scutellaria baicalensis extracts (SBE) in type 2 diabetic db/db mice. Male db/db mice were divided into three groups (n = 5) and orally administrated vehicle (control), SBE 10, and 100 mg/kg body weight/day for 4 weeks everyday. Administration of SBE improves weight gain, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperinsulinemia in db/db mice. In obese db/db mice, SBE treatment also reduced plasma alanine aminotransferase levels. In the livers of db/db mice, SBE promoted 5' AMP-activated protein kinase activity and restored metabolic process and insulin signaling pathways. Our data demonstrate that SBE exerts potent anti-obesity and anti-hypertriglyceride effects suggesting its useful potential function as adjuvant therapeutic agent for the treatment of weight gain and hypertriglyceridemia.

The physiological activities of Ephedra herba have been investigated extensively, particularly in the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of Ephedra herba on the brain and heart have yet to be thoroughly elucidated at the whole genome level. Therefore, the present study focused on the identification of the regulatory pattern of gene expression occurring in response to Ephedra herba, using microarray assays in three mouse organs - namely, the brain, heart and liver. Interestingly, the brain and heart exhibited a similar reciprocal pattern of gene expression during the early stages after the administration of Ephedra herba, whereas the liver evidenced a different gene expression profile. Moreover, pathways analysis showed that genes regulated reciprocally by Ephedra herba were associated with neural disease-related functions, such as the Parkinson's disease pathway, in both the brain and the heart. Promoter sequence analysis demonstrated that reciprocally regulated genes could be classified into subgroups on the basis of the similarity of their transcription factor binding sequences, in which temporally up-regulated genes were clustered as distinctive subgroups. In conclusion, the brain and heart responded commonly to Ephedra herba with a temporally reciprocal pattern of gene expression.

Although Ephedra herba has been used to treat a variety of diseases, the molecular mechanism has not been defined clearly. To identify the molecular events, a microarray analysis was conducted using the brain tissue of mice orally administered aqueous extracts of Ephedra herba, in which the expression level of many genes was altered depending on the duration of treatment time. In particular, temporal changes in the expressions of genes can be classified into two major reciprocal patterns in which 175 and 282 genes were included in pattern 1 and 2, respectively. Classification based on gene ontology revealed different functional implications of genes between temporal pattern 1 and 2. Through promoter analysis of temporally co-expressed genes, putative co-regulated genes could be segregated based on the similarity of the transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). Interestingly, two temporal patterns were associated with different sub-classes of TFBS similarity, which implies the presence of dual regulatory mechanisms. Finally, through interaction analysis, core node genes that could interact with many other nodes were identified. By integrating the interaction information with promoter clustering, temporally co-regulated key components could be selected in mouse brain after administration of Ephedra herba.

Pinelliae Rhizoma has been used traditionally as an antidepressant in Oriental medicine. In this study, the effect of Pinelliae Rhizoma extract (PRe) on psychological stress was investigated in mice. The results of an elevated plus-maze experiment revealed that application of psychological stress to mice led to the development of an abnormal behavioral pattern. However, oral administration of PRe significantly reduced the abnormal behavior of mice with a recovery rate of 75.5%. To elucidate the molecular mechanism by PRe, a microarray analysis of the brains of mice was conducted. The results of this analysis revealed that 456 genes were up-regulated and 392 genes were down-regulated in response to psychological stress. The expression of most of the genes that were altered in response to psychological stress was restored to normal levels in PRe treated mice, with a recovery rate of 81.5% and 85.2% being observed for up- and down-regulated genes, respectively. Finally, when the interaction network information was analysed, the recovery rate of the core node genes (46 up- and 29 down-regulated genes) in PRe treated mice was found to be over 95%, which indicates that this final set of genes may be the effective target of PRe.