A reporter gene assay for the detection of phytoestrogens in traditional Chinese medicine

Bupleurum & Peony Formula (Jia Wei Mao Yao San) is a herbal formula which p ossesses a clinical history for the treatment of menopausal syndrome and me nstrual irregularity. The present investigation reports the ability to moni tor the formula's phytoestrogen content that will allow for the implementat ion of a standardization protocol that is based on a quantifiable biologica l response. Utilizing an oestrogen-sensitive chimeric receptor/reporter gen e element which has been stably transfected into HeLa cells, the botanical formula was shown to induce the expression of the reporter gene, luciferase , in a dose dependent manner. Pretreatment of the HeLa cells with the botan ical formula produced a 5-fold increase in bioluminescence compared with th e control. Additionally, our studies showed that the response of the cells, when challenged by the botanical formula, was oestrogen specific. Pretreat ment of the cells with tamoxifen effectively blocked the activation of the chimeric oestrogen receptor by the botanical formula. The cell line provide s a sensitive assay that can easily detect the presence of phytoestrogens i n complex botanical formulas. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.