Kang Hee, Ahn Kyoo-Seok, Cho Chongwoon, Bae Hyun-Su
Department of Pathology, College of Oriental Medicine, KyungHee University, Seoul, South Korea.
Biol Pharm Bull. 2004 Dec;27(12):1946-50. doi: 10.1248/bpb.27.1946.
Astragali Radix (AR), is a popular herbal medicine used to treat allergic diseases in Korea, Japan and China. Our study examined the effect of an AR ethanol extract on both in vitro and in vivo murine CD4 T cells' differentiation into Th1 and Th2 subsets. CD4 T cells from Balb/c mice were activated with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 mAb in the presence of AR for 2 d. AR treated cells showed an elevated level of IL-4 but a reduced level of IFN-gamma secretion. In addition, in vitro Th1/Th2 polarization experiments revealed that AR enhanced the levels of IL-4 in Th2 cells but reduced the levels of IFN-gamma in Th1 cells. To elucidate the effects of AR in Th1/Th2 lineage development during the in vivo condition, AR was administrated orally to BALB/c mice. The results demonstrated that AR administration significantly increased IL-4 production in both the serum and supernatant of splenocyte culture, while IFN-gamma secretion was diminished upon in vivo activation with anti-CD3 antibody. Our data clearly indicates that AR selectively alters Th1/Th2 cytokine secretion patterns and provides the pharmacological basis for AR's clinical applications.
黄芪，是韩国、日本和中国用于治疗过敏性疾病的一种常用草药。我们的研究检测了黄芪乙醇提取物对体外和体内小鼠CD4 T细胞分化为Th1和Th2亚群的影响。在存在黄芪的情况下，用抗CD3/抗CD28单克隆抗体激活来自Balb/c小鼠的CD4 T细胞2天。经黄芪处理的细胞显示白细胞介素-4水平升高，但干扰素-γ分泌水平降低。此外，体外Th1/Th2极化实验表明，黄芪提高了Th2细胞中白细胞介素-4的水平，但降低了Th1细胞中干扰素-γ的水平。为了阐明黄芪在体内条件下对Th1/Th2谱系发育的影响，将黄芪口服给予BALB/c小鼠。结果表明，给予黄芪显著增加了脾细胞培养上清液和血清中白细胞介素-4的产生，而在用抗CD3抗体进行体内激活后，干扰素-γ分泌减少。我们的数据清楚地表明，黄芪选择性地改变Th1/Th2细胞因子分泌模式，并为黄芪的临床应用提供了药理学依据。
