Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2025
Testing for Odor Discrimination and Habituation in Mice
Published on: May 5, 2015
The influence of Black Cohosh on hippocampal and hypothalamic gene expression profiles in ovariectomized rats and its
Elena Pavicic1, Katrin Rüst2, Stefan Ehrentraut3
1School of Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Purpose:
Menopause is associated with a decrease in smell discrimination ability. This study assessed the impact of black cohosh on hippocampal (HC) and hypothalamic (HT) gene expression profiles in rats, to understand, if herbal treatment has an impact on neurologic changes due to menopause and whether this could address a decrease in smell discrimination.
Methods:
HC and HT tissues from female Sprague Dawley rats (total n = 19) were analyzed at three different life stages: intact tissues of the HC (n = 4) and the HT (n = 4), oophorectomized tissues 3 months after oophorectomy (OVX) of the HC (n = 4) and the HT (n = 3), and tissues after treatment with an isopropanolic extract (iCR) from the rhizomes of black cohosh (60 mg/kg) for 3 months after OVX of the HC (n = 2) and the HT (n = 2).
Main Outcome Measures:
To reveal underlying biological processes a gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed.
Results:
The GSEA revealed gene ontology terms that were significantly enriched, including several genes associated with the olfactory system, indicating biological processes regulated by treatment with iCR. Six olfactory receptor genes were further analyzed by another GSEA, demonstrating the possibility of iCR treatment to compensate for oophorectomy-induced changes.
Conclusion:
Findings suggest that herbal treatment, such as iCR, has an esteeming impact on HC and HT genes that are changed through menopause. Further studies are needed to suggest black cohosh as a treatment option for decreased smell discrimination.
