Retracted Article: Ginsenoside Rf alleviates dysmenorrhea and inflammation through the BDNF-TrkB-CREB pathway in a rat model of endometriosis

Xuying Qin, Yan Liu, Yanchong Feng, Jie Jiang
Food & function · 2018 · vol. 10(1) , pp. 244–249 · doi:10.1039/c8fo01839a · PMID:30547177 · W2904084998
article OA: closed CC0 RETRACTED ⤵ 7 in-corpus citations
Retraction notice. Marked retracted by OpenAlex; see publisher for the formal retraction notice.
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Ginsenoside Rf reduced endometriotic implant volume and pain in rats by down-regulating VEGF, inflammatory cytokines, and the BDNF-TrkB-CREB pathway.

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Abstract

To investigate the effects and the underlying mechanisms of ginsenoside Rf in a surgically induced rat endometriosis model, endometriosis was constructed through homologous transplantation and the Wistar rats were further randomly classified into the sham group, the estradiol valerate (E2V) control group, the endometriosis group, and the ginsenoside Rf groups (1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 mg kg-1, respectively). After 7 days of treatment, the implant volume and writhing responses were recorded. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), tropomyosin receptor kinases (TrkB), and phosphate-c-AMP-responsive element binding protein (pCREB) were further measured. Compared with the endometriosis group, ginsenoside Rf could decrease the volume of the endometriotic implants and writhing responses. Furthermore, the expression levels of VEGF and inflammation-related iNOS, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α were significantly down-regulated in the ginsenoside Rf groups in a dose-dependent manner. The results also showed that ginsenoside Rf could decrease the expression of BDNF, TrkB, and pCREB in the endometriotic implants. The alleviation of endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea and inflammation by ginsenoside Rf may be partially mediated by the BDNF-TrkB-CREB pathway.

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Condition tags

dysmenorrheaendometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Ginsenosides Receptor, trkB Animals Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Ginsenosides

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (30)

Cited by (7)

Source provenance

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License: CC0 · commercial use OK