Therapeutic Effect of Ecklonia cava Extract in Letrozole-Induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Rats

Hyun Yang, Seung Yeon Lee, Sang R. Lee, Bo‐Jeong Pyun, Hye Jin Kim, Young Ho Lee, Sun Woo Kwon, Dong Ho Suh, Choong Hwan Lee, Eui‐Ju Hong, Hye Won Lee
In: Frontiers in Pharmacology · 2018 · vol. 9 , pp. 1325 · doi:10.3389/fphar.2018.01325 · PMID:30524282 · W2900967868
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 2 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Ecklonia cava extract restored normal estrus cycles and hormone levels, reduced polycystic ovary symptoms, and altered gene expression in letrozole-induced PCOS rats.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This paper evaluated whether Ecklonia cava (E. cava) extract can reverse reproductive and endocrine abnormalities in a letrozole-induced polycystic ovary syndrome rat model, assessing estrous cyclicity, serum reproductive hormones (testosterone, estradiol, LH, FSH, and AMH), and ovarian histology. Rats receiving E. cava after letrozole showed restoration of regular estrous cycles, normalized hormone levels, and significantly decreased polycystic ovarian features with histology comparable to normal ovaries, alongside increased androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor β (Esr2) expression at transcriptional and translational levels. The study also included cell-based assays using human adrenal H295R cells with DHEA measurements and viability testing, but the abstract’s conclusions are limited to the letrozole rat model framework. This paper relates to endometriosis and/or adenomyosis insofar as it is included in the endometriosis/adenomyosis research corpus due to upstream keyword matching, though it does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis.

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Abstract

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrinal disorder that afflicts mainly women of childbearing age. The symptoms of PCOS are irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, subfertility and infertility. However, because the etiology is unclear, management and treatment methods for PCOS are not well established. Recently, natural substances have been used for PCOS therapy. Ecklonia cava (E. cava) is a well-known natural substance that attenuates the effects of inflammation, allergies and cancer. In this study, we investigated the effects of E. cava extract in rats with PCOS. When rats with letrozole-induced PCOS were exposed to the E. cava extract, the regular estrus cycle was restored, similar to that in placebo rats. Hormone levels, including the levels of testosterone, estrogen, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), were restored to their normal states. Histological analysis revealed that the polycystic ovary symptoms were significantly decreased in the E. cava-treated rats and were comparable to those of normal ovaries. At the transcriptional and translational levels, Cyp19a1, Ar, Esr1, Esr2 and aromatase levels were markedly increased in the E. cava-treated rats with PCOS compared with the rats with letrozole-induced PCOS. These results suggest that the E. cava extract inhibits the symptoms of PCOS by restoring imbalanced hormonal levels and irregular ovarian cycles in letrozole-induced female rats.

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last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
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