An Ultimate Approach to Retarding the Aging Process by Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine

Aging and death are unavoidable in life. While immortality may be impossible, many people dream of living a long and healthy life. Throughout history, humans have searched for ways to stay young, but have not found an effective way. This may be because the methods used do not target the causes of aging directly. To address this, we investigated how to delay aging using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine approaches. In this article, we will explain the causes of aging in the context of TCM and Western medicine and suggest methods to delay it. By integrating TCM and Western medicine, I hope to help everyone age healthily and enjoy a long life.

Evaluation of antioxidants and argpyrimidine in normal and cataractous lenses in north Indian population

AIM： To assess the level of glutathione, thioltransferase, and argpyrimidine in nuclear and cortical cataractous lenses as well as in the clear lenses in the north Indian population.METHODS： Human cataractous lenses were collected from the patients who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction surgery; clear lenses were collected from the freshly donated eye bank eyes. Antioxidant molecules such as glutathione and thioltransferase enzyme activity were measured; simultaneously in these lenses a blue fluorophore argpyrimidine, an advanced glycation end（AGE） product level was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC）.RESULTS： The protein concentration was found to be present at higher levels in the control lenses compared to cataract lenses. A significant decrease in the glutathione level was observed in the nuclear cataractous lenses compared to cortical cataractous（P=0.004） and clear lenses（P≤0.005）, but no significant change in the level of antioxidant enzyme thioltransferase was observed. Further, argpyrimidine a blue fluorophore（AGE） was found to be significantly higher in the nuclear cataract（P=0.013） compared to cortical cataract lenses.CONCLUSION： Antioxidants such as glutathione significantly decrease in age-related nuclear and cortical cataract and an AGE, argpyrimidine are present at significantly higher levels in nuclear cataract.

Effect of ischemic preconditioning on antioxidant status in the gerbil hippocampal CA1 region after transient forebrain ischemia

Ischemic preconditioning（IPC） is a condition of sublethal transient global ischemia and exhibits neuroprotective effects against subsequent lethal ischemic insult.We,in this study,examined the neuroprotective effects of IPC and its effects on immunoreactive changes of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase（SOD） 1 and SOD2,catalase（CAT） and glutathione peroxidase（GPX） in the gerbil hippocampal CA1 region after transient forebrain ischemia.Pyramidal neurons of the stratum pyramidale（SP） in the hippocampal CA1 region of animals died 5 days after lethal transient ischemia without IPC（8.6%（ratio of remanent neurons） of the sham-operated group）;however,IPC prevented the pyramidal neurons from subsequent lethal ischemic injury（92.3%（ratio of remanent neurons） of the sham-operated group）.SOD1,SOD2,CAT and GPX immunoreactivities in the sham-operated animals were easily detected in pyramidal neurons in the stratum pyramidale（SP） of the hippocampal CA1 region,while all of these immunoreactivities were rarely detected in the stratum pyramidale at 5 days after lethal transient ischemia without IPC.Meanwhile,their immunoreactivities in the sham-operated animals with IPC were similar to（SOD1,SOD2 and CAT） or higher（GPX） than those in the sham-operated animals without IPC.Furthermore,their immunoreactivities in the stratum pyramidale of the ischemia-operated animals with IPC were steadily maintained after lethal ischemia/reperfusion.Results of western blot analysis for SOD1,SOD2,CAT and GPX were similar to immunohistochemical data.In conclusion,IPC maintained or increased the expression of antioxidant enzymes in the stratum pyramidale of the hippocampal CA1 region after subsequent lethal transient forebrain ischemia and IPC exhibited neuroprotective effects in the hippocampal CA1 region against transient forebrain ischemia.

Protective Effect of Gelatin and Gelatin Hydrolysate from Salmon Skin on UV Irradiation-Induced Photoaging of Mice Skin

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of gelatin(SG) isolated from salmon skin and its hydrolysate(SGH) on photoaging skin, and the mechanism responsible for anti-photoaging. The average molecular weights of SG and SGH were 65 k Da and 873 Da, respectively. The amino acid compositions of SG and SGH were similar. Both of them were abundant in hydrophobic amino acids. Twenty-five peptides were identified from SGH. SG and SGH could improve UV irradiation-induced pathological changes of macroscopical tissue texture and skin morphology. Hydroxyproline content is an indicator of matrix collagen content, SG and SGH could inhibit the decrease of hydroxyproline content in photoaging skin in a dose dependent manner. In addition, SG and SGH could alleviate UV irradiation-induced oxidative damages to skin by increasing the activities of total superoxide dismutase(T-SOD), glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px) and catalase(CAT), increasing the content of glutathione(GSH) and decreasing the content of malonaldehyde(MDA). Moreover, SG and SGH could enhance immune regulation system by increasing the thymus index. Thus, the anti-photoaging mechanisms of SG and SGH were by inhibiting the depletion of antioxidant defense components, involving in the synthesis of collagen and enhancing the function of immune system. Besides, SGH showed a better result in protecting skin from photoaging than SG.

Antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects of Boswellia ovalifoliolata bark extracts

Paracetamol(PCM) hepatotoxicity is related to reactive oxygen species(ROS) formation and excessive oxidative stress; natural antioxidant compounds have been tested as an alternative therapy. This study evaluated the hepatoprotective activity of an alcoholic extract of Boswellia ovalifoliolata(BO) bark against PCM-induced hepatotoxicity. BO extract also demonstrated antioxidant activity in vitro, as well as scavenger activity against 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. Administration of PCM caused a significant increase in the release of transaminases, alkaline phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase in serum. Significant enhancement in hepatic lipid peroxidation and marked depletion in reduced glutathione were observed after parac intoxication with severe alterations in liver histology. BO treatment was able to mitigate hepatic damage induced by acute intoxication of PCM and showed a pronounced protective effect against lipid peroxidation, deviated serum enzymatic variables, and maintained glutathione status toward control. The results clearly demonstrate the hepatoprotective effect of BO against the toxicity induced by PCM.