Jeong Hyun-Ja, Chung Hwan-Suck, An Hyo-Jin, Kim Joon-Bae, Lee Eun-Mi, Park Eun-Jeong, Jang Chul-Ho, Hong Seung-Heon, Kim Hyung-Min
Department of Pharmacology, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-Dong, Dongdaemun-Gu, Seoul 130-701, South Korea.
Clin Chim Acta. 2003 Nov;337(1-2):77-84. doi: 10.1016/j.cccn.2003.07.001.
The herbal formulation, Allergina, has long been used for various diseases. It is known to have an anti-microbial and anti-virus activity. However, it is still unclear how Allergina has these effects in experimental models. We investigated the effect of Allergina on the proliferation of T cell and production of cytokines in human T-cell line, MOLT-4 cells, and mouse peritoneal macrophages.
The MOLT-4 cells were cultured for 24 h in the presence or absence of Allergina. Allergina significantly increased the cell viability by 26.9+/-5.4% (P<0.05) and interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4 and interferon (IFN)-gamma production compared with media control (about 4-fold for IL-2, 2.5-fold for IL-4 and 3.4-fold for IFN-gamma, P<0.05). Maximal effective concentration of Allergina was 1 mg/ml for IL-2 and, 0.01 mg/ml for IL-4 and IFN-gamma. Allergina alone or Allergina plus recombinant IFN-gamma (rIFN-gamma) increased the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, but Allergina decreased the production of TNF-alpha on rIFN-gamma plus LPS-stimulated macrophages. In addition, Allergina increased the production of IL-12 on mouse peritoneal macrophages and peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
Allergina may have an immune-enhancement effect through the cytokine production.
