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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Preparation of Herbal Medicine: Er-Xian Decoction and Er-Xian-containing Serum for In Vivo and In Vitro Experiments
Published on: May 31, 2017
Evaluation of in vitro embryotoxicity tests for Chinese herbal medicines
Lu Li1, Ling Yin Tang2, Bo Liang2
1College of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China; Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Institute of Chinese Medicine & State Key Laboratory of Research on Bioactivities and Clinical Applications of Medicinal Plants, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
Abstract:
Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have been widely used during pregnancy, but feto-embryo safety tests are lacking. Here we evaluated in vitro embryotoxicity tests (IVTs) as alternative methods in assessing developmental toxicity of CHMs. Ten CHMs were selected and classified as strongly, weakly and non-embryotoxic. Three well validated IVTs and prediction models (PMs), including embryonic stem cell test (EST), micromass (MM) and whole embryo culture (WEC), were compared. All strongly embryotoxic CHMs were predicted by MM and WEC PM2. While all weakly embryotoxic CHMs were predicted by MM and WEC PM1. All non-embryotoxic CHMs were classified by EST, MM, but over-classified as weakly embryotoxic by WEC PM1. Overall predictivity, precision and accuracy of WEC determined by PM2 were better than EST and MM tests. Compared with validated chemicals, performance of IVTs for CHMs was comparable. So IVTs are adequate to identify and exclude embryotoxic potential of CHMs in this training set.
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