Research Article Saponins from Aralia taibaiensis Attenuate D-Galactose-Induced Aging in Rats by Activating

Copyright © 2014 Ying-Na Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are closely related to the aging process. In our previous studies, we found that the saponins from Aralia taibaiensis have potent antioxidant activity, suggesting the potential protective activity on the aging. However, the protective effect of the saponins and the possible underlying molecular mechanism remain unknown. In the present study, we employed a D-galactose-induced aging rat model to investigate the protective effect of the saponins. We found that D-galactose treatment induced obvious aging-related changes such as the decreased thymus and spleen coefficients, the increased advanced glycation end products (AGEs) level, senescence-associate