Assessment of the effect of Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst. extract on the labeling of blood elements with technetium-99m and on the morphology of red blood cells

• Autor(a) principal: De,Kakali
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Chandra,Susmita, Misra,Mridula
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-695X2009000500003
• topic: Bacopa monnieri; Scrophulariaceae; technetium-99m; red blood cells; plasma; proteins; morphology

Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst. (BM), a traditional Ayurvedic medicine, used for centuries as a memory enhancing, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, sedative and antiepileptic agent. BM extract have been extensively investigated by several authors for their neuropharmacological effects. In nuclear medicine, red blood cells (RBC) labeled with technetium-99m (99mTc) have several clinical applications. However, data have demonstrated that synthetic or natural drugs could modify the labeling of RBC with 99mTc. As Bacopa monnieri is extensively used in medicine, we evaluated its influence on the labeling of RBC and plasma proteins using technetium-99m (99mTc). This labeling procedure depends on a reducing agent and usually stannous chloride is used. Blood was incubated with BM extracts. Stannous chloride solution and 99mTc were added. Blood was centrifuged and plasma (P) and blood cells (BC) were isolated. Samples of P or BC were also precipitated, centrifuged and insoluble fraction (IF) and soluble fraction (SF) were separated. The percentage of radioactivity (%ATI) in BC, IF-BC and IF-P were calculated. The %ATI significantly decreased on BC from 95.53±0.45 to 35.41±0.44, on IF-P from 80.20±1.16 to 7.40±0.69 and on IF-BC from 73.31±1.76 to 21.26±1.40. The morphology study of RBC revealed important morphological alterations due to treatment with BM extracts. We suggest that the BM extract effect could be explained by an inhibition of the stannous and pertechnetate ions or oxidation of the stannous ion or by damages induced in the plasma membrane.