Efficacy of Tokishakuyakusan on the anemia in the iron-deficient pregnant rats

Iron-deficiency anemia not only causes insufficient oxygen delivery to the body of the mother, but creates serious conditions in the fetus, such as insufficient oxygen delivery and poor development, and its treatment has become an important issue. To elucidate the mechanism of the anemia-ameliorating action of Tokishakuyakusan, we investigated the effect of administration of Tokishakuyakusan on anemia-related parameters and the serum transferrin and erythropoietin levels, erythrocyte morphology, and bone marrow cells in pregnant rats and in pregnant rats with iron-deficiency anemia. The results showed that Tokishakuyakusan significantly improved the low erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, and hematocrit values of the pregnant rats in the iron-deficient state, increased the proportion of normal erythrocytes in terms of erythrocyte morphology, increased the proportion of erythroblasts among bone marrow cells, and also significantly increased the erythropoietin and transferrin levels in the blood. These findings suggested that Tokishakuyakusan promotes erythrocyte differentiation in iron-deficiency anemia, and that it possesses anemia-ameliorating efficacy.