Dept. of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, College of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon Univ.

1. Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the anti-aging effect of oral administration with Nocyongdaebo-tang (NYD) decoction in aged rats. 2. Methods The SD rats used in this experiment were 6, 18 and 36 weeks old. A part of the 36weeks was grown to 52 and 68 weeks at labarotary. Each age group was again divided into three groups. These 15 groups consisted of 6 rats each. One group was given no treatment, another group was dosed 200 of normal saline daily, and the last group was dosed 200 of 1% Nocyongdaebo-tang(NYD) and saline mixture. At the conclusion of the experiment, the age groups were relabelled accordingly(10w, 22w, 40w, 52w and 68w). After 4 weeks, the tissue of liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidney and brain was biopsied in order to measure the SOD, GSH, MDA. 3. Results and Conclusions (1) The levels of GSH in the liver were significantly increased in the w-NYD(n=40) and w-NYD(n=68) groups compared with those of the normal groups. The activity of catalase in the liver was also much higher in the w-NYD (n=68) group compared with that of the saline groups. However, the levels of MDA in the liver were significantly decreased in the w-NYD(n=68) group compared with those of the normal and saline groups. (2) The levels of GSH in the spleen were significantly increased in the w-NYD(n=52) and w-NYD(n=68) groups compared with those of the normal and saline groups. (3) The levels of GSH in the lung were significantly increased in the w-NYD(n=40) and w-NYD(n=52) groups compared with those of the normal groups. (4) The levels of GSH in the kidney were higher in the w-NYD(n=40) compared with those of the normal groups and those were also higher in the w-NYD(n=52) groups compared with those of the saline groups, respectively. (5) The levels of GSH in the brain were higher in the w-NYD(n=40) compared with those of the normal groups and those were also higher in the w-NYD(n=52) groups compared with those of the normal and saline groups. (6) Degenerative changes of the brain were decreased in the w-NYD(n=68) group compared with those of the normal and saline groups. These results suggest that oral administration of Nocyongdaebo-tang decoction might have an important role to prevent age-related changes of various organs in aged rats.