Normalizing effect of saiko-keishi-to commercial formula on cytochalasin-B distorted neurites using primary cultured neurons of rat cerebral cortex.

The herbal medicine Saiko-keishi-to (SK1 is effective for refractory epileptics (Narita et al., 19821. SK inhibits pentylenetetrazol (PTZf-induced bursting activity in snail neurons (Sugaya et al., 19781 and also inhibits intracellular abnormal behavior and abnormal calcium-related intracellular protein changes during bursting activity induced by PTZ (Sugaya et al., 19851. In clinical use, SK shows a normalizing effect on emotional disturbances unlike established antiepileptic drugs which are usually apt to induce emotional disturbances as well as other side effects such as drowsiness, vertigo and headache in spite of inhibition of generalized convulsions. This clinical evidence prompted us to examine the effect of a commercial formulation of SK, TJ-960, on the distorted neurite development produced by cytoehalasin-B, a toxin for the cytoskeleton.