ABSTRACT:Plants have been used for the human beings as food, as additives and/or as medicines. There are controversies about the biological effects of several natural products and, it is worthwhile to try to develop experimental assays to evaluate properties of extracts of plants. Pfaffi a sp. is utilized in popular medicine and various properties have been attributed to its extract. Red blood cells (RBC) and plasma proteins are labeled with technetium-99m (Tc-99m) and this labeling procedure depends on a reducing agent and stannous ion is usually used. There are reports that drugs can alter the labeling of blood elements with Tc-99m. We have evaluated the infl uence of a Pfaffi a sp. extract on the labeling of blood constituents with Tc-99m and on the morphology of RBC. Blood was incubated with an aqueous extract of Pfaffi a sp., stannous chloride and Tc-99m. Samples were centrifuged and plasma and blood cells were separated and also precipitated with trichloroacetic acid. Soluble and insoluble fractions were separated. The results did not show alteration in the uptake of radioactivity and no modifi cations on the shape of the RBC in presence of Pfaffi a sp. Once this labeling process depends on a reducing agent, probably, this extract has compounds with anti-oxidant properties as already described elsewhere, that could protect the stannous ions against the oxidation process. This fact would aid the labeling process of blood elements with Tc-99m.
The Liu Wei Di Huang Wan is a formula of a traditional Chinese medicine that is used to treat asthma patients and has been shown to have several important properties, such as antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities. The influence of an extract of Liu Wei Di Huang Wan on the labeling of blood constituents with technetium-99m was investigated. Anticoagulated blood (Wistar rats) was incubated with the extract, stannous chloride and technetium-99m, as sodium pertechnetate. Samples were centrifuged and aliquots of plasma and blood cells were separated and precipitated with trichloroacetic acid, to obtain soluble and insoluble fractions of the blood constituents. The percentage of radioactivity (%ATI) in all the fractions was determined. The analysis of the results shows that the extract at the highest concentration used (70 mg/mL) decreased significantly (P<0.05) the %ATI (from 96.48 ± 1.19 to 54.46 ± 7.38) on blood cells compartment, (from 81.11 ± 4.15 to 61.33 ± 4.74) on insoluble fractions of blood cells and (from 65.91 ± 2.44 to 13.15 ± 3.62) on insoluble fractions of plasma. In conclusion, the results suggest that the substances present on this extract can alter this labeling process, probably due to (i) redox properties (antioxidant and chelator activities) and/or (ii) specific actions in the binding sites where the 99mTc would be bound on the blood constituents. As a consequence, precaution is suggested on the interpretation of the nuclear medicine results from performed with blood constituents labeled with 99m Tc in patients that have undertaken LWDHW, although the current findings were obtained in experimental animal models.
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