Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluation of anti-fatigue property of Porphyridium cruentum in mice

Yongmei Huang¹, Yongfu Wang², Wenjie Li³, Jingting Zhan⁴, Jinli Lei⁴, Ning Li¹, Lihua Tan², Chang Qu², Jiannan Chen², Hui Luo⁴

¹Marine Biomedical Research Institute, The Key Lab of Zhanjiang for R & D Marine Microbial Resources in the Beibu Gulf Rim; ²Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Mathematical Engineering Academy of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Development and Research of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006; ³Department of Hematology, Affiliated hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, 524001; ⁴Chemistry Teaching and Research Section, The Key Lab of Zhanjiang for R&D Marine Microbial Resources in the Beibu Gulf Rim, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524023, PR China.

For correspondence:- Hui Luo Email: luohui-gdmu@outlook.com Tel:+867592388009

Accepted: 26 February 2019 Published: 31 March 2019

Citation: Huang Y, Wang Y, Li W, Zhan J, Lei J, Li N, et al. Evaluation of anti-fatigue property of Porphyridium cruentum in mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(3):579-584 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i3.19

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the potential effects of Porphyridium cruentum (PC) on fatigue induced by forced swimming test in mice.

Methods: Mice were randomly divided into normal control group (NC, i.e., untreated non-swimming); model control group (MC, untreated swimming); Spirulina treated group (SP, 800 mg/kg); PC-treated groups (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg), respectively. After intragastric administration for 14 consecutive days, a weight-bearing swimming experiment was conducted for the mice, and the biochemical indicators related to fatigue were examined, including exhaustive swimming time, glucose levels (Glu), hepatic glycogen contents (HG), muscle glycogen contents (MG), glutathione peroxidase activities (GSH-Px), creatine kinase (CK), malondialdehyde (MDA), urea nitrogen levels (SUN), lactate dehydrogenase activities (LDH), lactic acid (LA) as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD).

Results: PC significantly prolonged the swimming endurance time compared to MC. After PC treatment, Glu, HG and MG were effectively increased dose-dependently, SUN, LA, LDH and CK levels in serum were significantly reduced. Moreover, PC treatment elevated the bioactivities of two antioxidant enzymes, namely, GSH-Px and SOD, while MDA content decreased when compared to MC group.

Conclusion: These results indicate that PC exhibits strong anti-fatigue effect. Thus, PC may be suitable for incorporation in functional food to counter fatigue.

Keywords: Porphyridium cruentum, Anti-fatigue, Energy metabolism, Detrimental metabolites, Oxidative stress