Improvement of Aspects of Subjective Sleep Quality of Healthy Volunteers by Ingestion of Porcine Placental Extract: A Randomized Cross-Over Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed the effects of oral porcine placental extract (PPE) on sleep quality of healthy volunteers not satisfied with their sleep.Design: This study used a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over clinical pilot study.Setting: This study was conducted under an outpatient multicenter setting in Japan.Interventions: A total of 20 healthy Japanese volunteers aged between 28 and 73, whose Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index global scores were between 6 and 10, successfully completed the study. At first, PPE at 300 mg/kg or placebo was ingested for 2 weeks. Then, after a 2-week washout period, each group ingested under a cross-over setting the opposite sample (placebo or PPE) for another 2 weeks.Main Outcome Measures: Objective measurement of the sleep made with an activity tracker and subjective measurements of sleep quality by use of St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire were done just before and after the administration time slots.Results: No effect of PPE on the sleep length was observed. Several measures in the subjective St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire, i.e., changes in Q5 (sleep depth) and Q9 (sleep wellness) between pre-and post-ingestions, were significantly different between groups in the direction of improvement of subjective sleep quality in the PPE group. Conclusions:Although oral PPE at 300 mg/day for 2 weeks did not affect the length of sleep itself, it significantly improved several measures of subjective sleep quality. These results suggest that PPE might be a way to improve sleep quality without hypnotic drugs.

Equine placental extract supplement as a night barking remedy in dogs with cognitive dysfunction syndrome

“…However, it is unclear whether improved sleep quality was an effect of eqPE in this case. In human studies, it has been reported that porcine placental extract does not affect the duration of sleep, but it improves the quality of sleep (Nagase et al., 2020); therefore, it is assumed that eqPE had a similar effect in dogs. Currently, we are conducting research using mouse models with sleep disorders to elucidate the effects and mechanism of eqPE.…”

Novel Placenta-Derived Liquid Product Suitable for Cosmetic Application Produced by Fermentation and Digestion of Porcine or Equine Placenta Using Lactic Acid Bacterium Enterococcus faecalis PR31

“…Several old documents describing the usage of the placenta as traditional medicines have been discovered in Asian countries; for example, a Chinese historical book, "Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu)" mentioned the use of dried human placenta (Ze He Che) as a revitalizer [4]. Recently, placental extracts produced by digesting the placenta of several animals with proteases or acids have been used for both inner and outer beauty, especially in Asian countries, including Japan [5][6][7][8][9]. For application in cosmetics, although traditional placental extracts produced solely by proteolysis have been reported to have the property to stimulate the proliferation of dermal fibroblasts [10][11][12], their moisturizing effects were not sufficient, and they could not stimulate the proliferation of epidermal keratinocytes [10].…”

Human placental extract suppresses mast cell activation and induces mast cell apoptosis

“…Doctors chose direct application of HPE as their priority for burned patients to both prevent infection and promote healing [ 14 ]. The placental extract is useful for the maintenance of human skin quality [ 15 ], improvement of sleep quality [ 16 ], reduction of menopausal symptoms [ 17 ], and maintenance of joint functions in knee osteoarthritis patients [ 18 ]. Multiple studies have demonstrated that HPE is also involved in immune regulation.…”