粥狀動脈硬化是一種長期性的發炎反應疾病。為了探究中草藥萃取物對於降低血管粥瘤的形成與詳盡的分子機轉，我們使用純種的紐西蘭大白兔做為動物模式並區分為十個組別，分給於不同成分的中草藥萃取物如川芎、厚卜、丹蔘、紅花、與石斛。飼餵8周後將其犧牲並萃取主動脈弓之RNA進行分析。挑選5個在粥狀動脈硬化病程中具有特異性表現的基因，進行即時定量的聚合酶鏈鎖反應技術，精確的探討中草藥粗萃物其對於特異性基因群表現的影響。結果顯示所選擇的中草藥萃取物皆能降低原先受高膽固醇飼料所誘發的特定基因表現，且在統計上均有顯著差異。根據實驗結果顯示中草藥萃取物對於降低粥狀動脈硬化時特定基因表現具有顯著的作用，對於應用在人體抗粥狀脈硬化可提供進一步探討。 此外也使用人類微矩陣基因晶片的技術分析正常與高膽固醇飼餵組之兔子基因群表現，經分析顯色結果後挑選了57個基因，以半定量聚合酶鏈鎖反應的技術驗證在正常與高膽固醇飼餵組間基因群的表現差異。藉全面且大規模的方式篩選特異性表現的基因群，作為未來評估抗粥狀脈硬化功效之高效率的工具。; Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease. To determine the effect in lowing the formation of the atheroma and molecular mechanism of Chinese herb treatment, New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits were assigned randomly into ten dietary groups. The normal group was fed regular rabbit chow and the cholesterol group was fed a chow containing 0.5 % cholesterol, the probucol group, the lovastatin group, and five Chinese herb essence groups were fed the same diet as the control group plus those additives, respectively. Animals were scarified after 8 weeks feeding and aortas were used to extract total RNA. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used to determine five specific gene expressions during atherogensis. The results of cholesterol group show over-expression in those five genes. And, the gene expressions of Chinese herb essence groups are significantly decreased as compare to cholesterol group and almost identical to the normal group. These results show that the protective effect of Chinese herb extraction against hypercholesterolemic atherosclerosis is valid. Human cDNA microarray were also performed to identify specific genes expression between the regular rabbit chow and the cholesterol group. To determine the homology between rabbit and human, we further choose 57 identified rabbit genes to performe semi-quantitative RT-PCR. It is promising using human cDNA microarray to screen genes expression during atherogenesis.
