• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1061-1070
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• 2004

Chronic oral aphthae, recurrent ulcer and uveitis are the three main festations of Behcet's disease(BD). The aetiopathogenesis of Behcet's disease is still obscure, but herpes simplex virus is one of the possible casual factors. Gamchosasim-tang (Gancaoxiexin-tang), Banhasasim-tang(Banxiaxiexin-tang) and Saenggangsasim-tang( Shengjiangxiexin-tang) are traditional medication in Oriental medicine, that has been used to treat inflammatory disease. Especially, Gamchosasim-tang used to treat Behcet's disease like symptoms. ICR mice were used for this study. The earlobe of the mice were scratched with a needle, then inoculation with 1.0×10/sup 6/ plaque forming units/㎖ of HSV type I. Virus inoculation was performed twice with 10 day interval, followed by 16 weeks of observation. Using the HSV-induced Behcet's disease mouse model, kinds of Sasim-tang were administered variously before and after inoculation. In order to. classify the symptomatic mice as having Behcet's disease like symptoms. We followed the revised Japanese classification with minor modifications. Ulceration of the mice were monitored. In addition, spleen cytokine expression were measured by polymerase chain reaction, ELISA. HSV DNA was detected in HSV inoculation mice. HSV-induced mice treated with kinds of Sasim-tang showed improvement in symptom. In RT-PCR results, IFN-γ was expressed for all groups, IL-2 was expressed for the treated groups, and IL-10 was also expressed. IL-4 was expressed nothing. In ELISA, IL-2 was increased for GSST 2, BSST 2, GSST 2, GSST3 and INF-γ was increased for GSST 2, BSST 2, SSST 2, SSST 3. This model suggest the possible role of immune response to viral infection in the development and activation of Behcet's disease.