Liver Injury Caused by Psoraleae Fructus： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Psoraleae Fructus （PF） is a non-toxic Chinese herbal medicine， while the liver injury caused by PF has aroused wide concern in recent years. At present， animal experiments and in vitro studies have been carried out to explore the mechanism， targets， and toxic components of PF in inducing liver injury， which， however， have differences compared with the actual conditions in clinical practice， and there are still some potential hepatotoxic components and targets of PF that have not been discovered. With the continuous progress in systems biology， establishing the drug-induced liver injury model and the liver injury prediction model based on network toxicology can reduce the cost of animal experiments， improve the toxicity prediction efficiency， and provide new tools for predicting toxic components and targets. To systematically explain the characteristics of liver injury in the application of PF and explore the potential hepatotoxic components and targets of PF， we reviewed the related articles published by China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI）， Wanfang Data， VIP， and PubMed from 1962 to 2021 and analyzed the characteristics and influencing factors of liver injury caused by PF in the patients. Furthermore， we summarized the chemical components of PF and the components entering blood. By reviewing the mechanism， targets， and components of PF in inducing liver injury that were discovered by in vivo and in vitro experiments， we summarized the known compounds in PF that may cause liver injury. Finally， the current methods for building the prediction model of PF-induced liver injury were summarized， and the predicted toxic components and targets were introduced. The possible factors of PF in causing liver injury were explained from three aspects： clinical characteristics， preclinical studies， and computer-assisted network prediction， which provide a reference for predicting the risk of PF-induced liver injury.

Thought and method of reproductive toxicity research in traditional Chinese medicine / 药学学报

Reproductive toxicity research takes an important place in traditional Chinese medicine pre-clinical safety evaluation. Modern reproductive toxicity experiment includes drug-related miscarriage, fetal death, teratism, and adverse effects on fertility, genital system, embryonic development and fetus, which is different from contraindicated in pregnancy in traditional Chinese medicine theory. Now the three-phases reproductive toxicity study is the method mainly applied in traditional Chinese medicine reproductive toxicity evaluation. Besides that, alternative methods of whole embryos culture and embryonic stem cell test are also used in traditional Chinese medicine embryo toxicity evaluation. This article reviews research progress and pre-clinical evaluation on reproductive toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine.

Research progress of especial toxicity and of pyrrolizidine alkaloids / 中国中药杂志

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are widely distributed in many plants including medicinal herbs. The hepatotoxicity of PAs has been known academically for a long time, however, their reproductive toxicity, mutagenesis and carcinogenicity have been less researched. This article is an overview of the clinical and experimental reports of the reproductive toxicity, mutagenesis and carcinogenicity of PAs, the effective factors and generating mechanism of the toxicity.

Research progress of whole embryo culture tool and its application / 中国中药杂志

Whole embryo culture (WEC) is an experimental tool, which is made use of embryos in vitro to replace whole animals to investigate the growth and development of early organs, the embryo toxicity of chemical materials and the mechanism of the occurrence of embryo toxicity. Compared with experiment with whole animals, WEC could reduce the number of experimental animals, shorten experimental time, decrease experimental expenses, eliminate disturbing factors and control dosage more exactly. So it is generally received that WEC tool is a good experimental method to match the principles of replacement, reduction, refinement and responsibility. This article is a review of the WEC tool of rat and mouse, including the development of this tool, announcements, and the application in the development of organs, the embryo toxicity of environmental pollution and heavy metal, safety evaluation of medicine and the embryo toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine and its mechanism. There is also a discussion of the application of this tool in the investigation of the embryo toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine.