Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Polysaccharides isolated from Morinda officinalis How roots inhibits cyclophosphamide-induced leukopenia in mice

Yaxin Zhao¹, Meng Wang², Yang Li³ , Wanting Dong⁴

¹Department of Pharmacy; ²Medical Department; ³Chinese Medicine Department, Jining Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital, Jining 272000, Shandong, PR China; ⁴Ministry of Education, Jining No. 1 Peopleâ€™s Hospital, Jining 272000, Shandong, PR China.

For correspondence:- Yang Li Email: tcmliyang@126.com Tel:+865373168581

Accepted: 20 August 2017 Published: 30 September 2017

Citation: Zhao Y, Wang M, Li Y, Dong W. Polysaccharides isolated from Morinda officinalis How roots inhibits cyclophosphamide-induced leukopenia in mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(9):2155-2160 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i9.16

© 2017 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 investigate the optimum parameters for extracting polysaccharides from Morinda officinalis How (MOP), and explore their inhibitory effects on leukopenia in mice.

Methods: Orthogonal design was performed to investigate the optimum parameters for extracting MOP. A leukopenia mouse model was established by injection of cyclophosphamide (CTX) for three days. Thereafter, MOP (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) was administered orally for 10 days. Furthermore, blood cells (leukocytes, neutrophil, lymphocyte and mononuclear cell) were analyzed, while serum IL-3 and IL-6 were determined by ELISA. The thymus and spleen of the mice were separated and weighed to determine viscera indices.

Results: Orthogonal design showed that the influence order of the four factors was extraction times (C) > ratio of water to raw material (RWM, D) > extraction time (B) > extraction temperature (A). The optimum extraction parameters for MOP were: extraction temperature (80 °C), extraction duration (2 h), no. of extractions (3), and ratio of water to raw material (30 mL/g). Furthermore, the results indicate that MOP (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) elevated the levels of leukocyte (p < 0.01), neutrophil (p < 0.01), lymphocyte (p < 0.01) and mononuclear cell (p < 0.01) in leukopenia mice. Besides, MOP (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) also increased thymus (p < 0.01) and spleen (p < 0.05) indices and serum levels of IL-3 (p < 0.05) and IL-6 (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Orthogonal design is a good strategy for optimizing extraction parameters of MOP. Furthermore, MOP stimulated synthesis of leukocytes in CTX-induced leukopenia in mice. Thus, MOP is a potential adjunct for the treatment of tumors/cancers.

Keywords: Morinda officinalis, Polyscacharide, Orthogonal design, Leukopenia, Thymus index, Spleen index