Anti-Fatigue and Anti-Hypoxic Effects of Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the anti-fatigue and anti-hypoxic effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) in mice. The mice were randomly divided into four groups, a control group and three treatment groups. The treated groups received different doses of LBP (125, 250 and 500 mg/kg body) by gavage every day for 28 days, while the control group received distilled water. Forced swimming test and normobaric hypoxia test were conducted on the final day of experimentation. The results showed that LBP could extend the exhaustive swimming time, decrease the blood lactic acid (BLA) and serum urea nitrogen (SUN) levels, and increase liver and muscle glycogen contents in forced swimming test. Meanwhile, LBP could extend hypoxic survival time in normobaric hypoxia test. This indicated that LBP had anti-fatigue and anti-hypoxic effects.