The Effect of Angelica gigas Nakai on Immune Enhancement in Cyclophosphamide-induced Immune-suppressed Mice

Natural products are important sources for drug development because they have a wide variety of useful biological properties. Angelica gigas Nakai (AGN) has been used as an herbal medicine. The present study was designed to evaluate the immune-enhancing effect of AGN in the cyclophosphamide (CP) induced immune-suppressed mice. As the result, we found that CP induced the reductions of body ratio, spleen weights, hematopoietic parameter and cytokine productions in mice. However, AGN recovered immunosuppression-mediated decreased body ratio, spleen and thymus weights as well as regulation of hematopoietic parameter including white blood cell, lymphocyte, and neutrophil. According to histological study, AGN regenerated on CP-mediated injured spleen. Moreover, AGN increased the CP-induced reduction of cytokine expression in spleen tissue. Collectively, the findings provide experimental evidence that AGN may be a candidate for health-improving herbs.