Experimental Substantiation of the Use of Maral Deer Antlers for Combating Extreme Psycho-Emotional Stress

Abstract

This work was aimed at investigating the effect of maral antler powder on the activity of animal hematopoietic stem cells both in vivo and in vitro.For in vivo experiments based on the model of sleep deprivation, male mice of the CBA/CaLac line were used. Prior to the experiment, mice in the experimental and control groups were intragastrically administered with a water dispersion of a maral antler powder and distilled water, respectively. Subsequently, the extraction of bone marrow from the femur, cloning of erythro- and granulo-monocytopoiesis precursors and count of the number of cell colonies were performed. Experiments in vitro involved the extraction of bone marrow cells from the femur followed by their cultivation both in a culture containing a maral antler powder (experimental) and distilled water (control culture). The number of CFU was counted 7 days following the beginning of the experiment.Maral antlers are found to exhibit no noticeable modulating effect on the colony-forming activity of mouse hematopoietic stem cells in vitro. However, according to our in vivo experiments on mice, a preventive administration of an antler powder before a stressful infl uence (sleep deprivation) prevents suppression of erythropoiaesis processes, thus exhibiting a modulating effect on the activity of CFU-E and CFU-GM by increasing the number of CFU-E and reducing the number of CFU-GM by more than three times. The modulating effect of maral antlers on the activity of hematopoietic and stem cells is based on the infl uence of biologically active substances contained therein on the neuroendocrine regulation of the hematopoietic system occurring in living organisms.