Effect of Wujia Shenghua capsule on uterine bleeding following medically-induced incomplete abortion in rats during early pregnancy

The Wujia Shenghua capsule (WSC) is derived from Sheng-Hua-Tang, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine compound prescription that has been widely applied during the postpartum period in Chinese communities for a number of years. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of WSC on uterine bleeding following medically-induced incomplete abortion in rats during early pregnancy. Incomplete abortions were induced in Wistar rats during early pregnancy using mifepristone combined with misoprostol. The effects of WSC treatment were investigated in terms of the duration and volume of uterine bleeding, the uterine index and shape, and various hemodynamic indexes. In addition, blood samples were collected to measure the levels of estradiol (E₂), fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LM) via a radioimmunoassay or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while the expression levels of FN, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in the uterine tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry. The in vivo results demonstrated that WSC treatment markedly shortened the duration and reduced the volume of uterine bleeding when compared with the model group. Furthermore, WSC treatment significantly elevated the E₂ level in the serum and the expression of the ER and PR in the uterine tissues, while notably decreasing the FN and LM levels in the serum and uterine tissues. In addition, the hemodynamic indexes were shown to improve with WSC treatment. These results demonstrated that WSC exerted an inhibitory effect on the bleeding caused by medical abortion, possibly through modulating the E₂, ER, PR, FN and LM levels.