Table 4.

Outcomes evaluated in the included studies.

Study	Outcome	Signal pathway
	Behavioral test
Du 26	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency b) Crossing times c) Dwelling time	Apoptosis rates ↓
Liu 33	1. Morris water maze c) Dwelling time	GFAP ↓, Aβ ↓
Wang 27	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency b) Crossing times	Bcl-2 ↑, Bax ↓, Caspase-3 ↓
Wang 28	None	Aβ ↓
Wang 29	Duplicated with Wang 27	Morphologic change
Jiang 31	1. Morris water maze b) Crossing times	IL-1β ↓, IL-2 ↑, Aβ ↓
Wang 34	2. Step-down test a) Latent period b) Error times 3. Nerve behavior score	VEGF ↑, flt-1 ↑, flk-1mRNA ↑
Wang 37	2. Step-down test a) Latent period b) Error times 3. Nerve behavior score	VEGF ↑, flt-1 ↑, bFGF ↑, bFGF-r ↑
Zhu 30	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency b) Crossing times c) Dwelling time	PS1 ↓, BACE-1 ↓, serum IL-6 ↓, Aβ ↓
Wang 35	None	morphologic change
Weilan 38	NA	Bax ↓, Bcl-2 ↑, C-fos ↓
Luo 40	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency b) Crossing times	NA
Zhang 36	NA	Vascular endothelial cell proliferation↑, migration↑
Xiao 7	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency	Bax ↓, Bcl-2 ↑, SOD2 ↑, MDA ↓, GSH-Px ↑ ChAT ↑, AChE ↓
Yu 32	NA	Metabolites of TCA ↑ Metabolites of fatty acid ↓ Mono / polyunsaturated fatty acids ↑
Zhu 39	1. Morris water maze a) Escape latency	NF-κB (NF-κBp65, NFκBp50) ↓, TNF-α ↓, IL-1β ↓, morphologic change

Abbreviations: TCA, tricarboxylic acid; FA, fatty acid; P-p38 MAPK, phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase; Aβ, β-amyloid; GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein; IL, interleukin; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; Flt-1, fms-like tyrosine kinase 1; bFGF, basic fibroblast growth factor; Bcl-2, B-cell lymphoma 2; Bax, Bcl-2-associated X protein; SOD, superoxide dismutase; MDA, malondialdehyde; BACE-1, β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1; PS1, presenilin-1; APP, Amyloid precursor protein; GSH-Px, glutathione peroxidase; AChE, acetylcholinesterase; ChAT, choline acetyltransferase; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; NF- kB, nuclear factor-kappa.