Effect of Panax Ginseng and Ziziphus Jujuba under Restraint Stress

Objectives:The purpose of this study is to determine whether effects of stress hormone, expression of stress protein could be induced by Panax ginseng(PG) or Ziziphus jujuba(ZJ) extract ingestion during stress exposure.Methods:Six-week old rats were divided into 4 groups;Group 1, normal control;Group 2, rats were treated with ddH2O before 2 hours restraint stress;Group 3, rats were treated with PG (0.5g/kg/day) before 2 hours restraint stress;Group 4, rats were treated with ZJ (0.5g/kg/day) before 2 hours restraint stress. The rats were sacrificed at day 5 of the experiment. Results: Rats treated only stress significantly increased in corticosterone(CORT) levels compared to unstressed rats, and rats treated stress and PG or ZJ significantly decreased in CORT levels compared to only stressed rats. Bcl-2 expression of the stressed rats decreased in comparison with the stressed rats in heart and stomach.Stressed rats were decreased in p53 protein expression than normal rats. Clusterin expressed strongly in only salivary gland, but that of expression was no difference among four groups in tissues.Conclusions:1)The CORT level of stressed rats after administration of PG or ZJ,slightly decreased in CORT levels compared to unstressed rats, but significantly decreased in CORT levels compared to only stressed rats. 2)Bcl-2 expression of rats administered to PG was lower than the stressed rats in heart and that of rats administered to ZJ was lower than the stressed rats in stomach. 3) In result of p53 protein expression, we suggest stress-induced apoptosis is p53-independent apoptosis.4)Clusterin expression has no relation of stress-induced apoptosis.