Pro-angiogenic effects of Guo Min decoction in a zebrafish model.

Objectives: Guo Min decoction (GMD) is a Chinese traditional medicine that can regulate allergy-related symptoms. Although GMD treatment was reported to treat allergy-associated symptoms by regulating the immune response, the rationale between GMD treatment and angiogenesis has not been reported yet. Our objective is to investigate the angiogenesis-modulating activity of GMD.

Materials And Methods: In this study, we used fluorescence recording, alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity staining, and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments to examine the effects of GMD on angiogenesis in a zebrafish model.

Results: GMD-treated zebrafish embryos exhibited more intercapillary spaces in the caudal vein plexus (Mock: 11.1 ± 1.8 [ = 20; : numbers of embryos]; GMD-treated: 16.2 ± 1.9 [ = 20]). AP activity staining showed that treatment with GMD and liquorice (Gan Cao, a component of GMD) induced subintestinal vein outgrowth. However, glycyrrhizin (a component of Gan Cao) had no obvious pro-angiogenic effects on zebrafish. Furthermore, real-time PCR experiments indicated that GMD exposure might be through regulating angiogenesis-related genes (, , and ) expressions.

Conclusion: Based on these observations, we proposed that GMD had pro-angiogenic activity in a zebrafish model, and it might partially be contributed by one of the components, liquorice.