Hematopoietic effect of water-soluble polysaccharides from Angelica sinensis on mice with acute blood loss

Objective

To assess the hematopoietic effects of Angelica sinensis and to investigate the possible mechanism related to its hematopoietic activity.

Materials and Methods

The crude extract of Angelica sinensis (AS) was separated into two fractions, polysaccharides (ASPS) and small molecular weight compounds. The AS, ASPS, and small molecular weight compounds were incubated with mice spleen cells to obtain conditioned mediums, and then their hematopoietic activities were evaluated by granulocyte macrophage (GM) colony-forming assay in vitro. During in vivo test, we used mice that were bled approximately 0.5 mL by retro-orbital bleeding at day 0 as our anemia model.

Results

We found that polysaccharide (ASPS) was the major component responsible for the hematopoietic effect of Angelica sinensis. The hematopoietic activity was through the stimulation of secretion of interleukin-6 and GM colony-stimulating factor, and the amounts of these hematopoietic growth factors secreted, in general, agreed with the number of GM colony formations. Administration of low-dose ASPS (2.3 mg ASPS/kg body weight per day) could significantly accelerate the recovery of hemoglobin level of the blood-loss mice to its original value, as compared to the control (p < 0.05). Moreover, the colony-forming ability of bone marrow cells that were removed from mice that received ASPS was also markedly increased (p < 0.05) during ex vivo test.

Conclusions

Results of this study demonstrated the potential of ASPS for treatment of anemia.