College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, Korea.
Molecules. 2012 Jun 25;17(7):7695-708. doi: 10.3390/molecules17077695.
The immunomodulatory effects of the ethanol extract of Gynostemma pentaphyllum (GP-EX) were examined in electric footshock (EFS)-stressed mice. The mice were orally administered various doses of GP-EX for 7 days before exposure to EFS (duration: 3 min, interval: 10 s, intensity: 2 mA) once a day from day 8 for 14 days with continuous daily feeding of GP-EX. Oral administration of GP-EX to mice prevented EFS stress-induced immunosuppression as determined by the lymphoid organ (thymus and spleen) weight and cellularity. In addition, oral administration of GP-EX restored EFS-suppressed functional properties of mature lymphocytes in terms of concanavalin A-induced proliferation of splenocytes and lipopolysaccharide-induced cytokine production (TNF-α, IL-1β). Furthermore, we found that mice that were orally administered with GP-EX generated much more potent ovalbumin-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses upon intravenous ovalbumin injection compared to the untreated controls. These results demonstrate that oral administration of the ethanol extract of Gynostemma pentaphyllum could increase host defense in immunocompromised situations such as stress-induced immunosuppression.
本研究旨在探讨绞股蓝（GP-EX）乙醇提取物的免疫调节作用。实验采用电足底电击（EFS）应激模型，将小鼠连续灌胃给药 7 天，随后每天给予 EFS 刺激（持续时间：3 分钟，间隔：10 秒，强度：2 mA）14 天。结果显示，绞股蓝乙醇提取物可预防 EFS 应激引起的免疫抑制，表现为胸腺和脾脏重量及细胞数量的增加。此外，绞股蓝乙醇提取物还可恢复 EFS 抑制的成熟淋巴细胞功能特性，包括刀豆蛋白 A 诱导的脾细胞增殖和脂多糖诱导的细胞因子（TNF-α、IL-1β）产生。此外，我们发现，与未处理对照组相比，经绞股蓝乙醇提取物灌胃的小鼠在静脉注射卵清蛋白后产生了更强的卵清蛋白特异性细胞毒性 T 淋巴细胞反应。这些结果表明，绞股蓝乙醇提取物的口服给药可增强宿主在免疫抑制等应激情况下的防御能力。
