• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권11호
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• pp.1699-1705
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• 2006

Recent studies have suggested that oral bacteriotherapy with probiotics might be useful for preventing and managing childhood atopic dermatitis (AD). The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral treatment with probiotics for adolescent and adult AD patients as well as for childhood AD patients. Sixty-four patients with mild to moderate AD were recruited for treatment with a mixture of four probiotic strains (Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, and Biftdobacterium lactis) twice daily for 8 weeks. The degree of pruritus was determined by a 10-point visual analog scale every other week, and the patients' global assessments of their clinical responses (i.e., better, unchanged, or worse) was done at the end of intervention. The clinical severity of the eczema was evaluated by eczema area and severity index (EASI) score every other week. As laboratory markers, total immunoglobulin E (IgE), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) in the serum, and cytokine production [interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and $interferon-{\gamma}\;(IFN-{\gamma})$ by the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were measured at the beginning and at the end of intervention. Of the 64 enrolled AD patients, only 50 patients finally completed the 8-week study. After 8-week treatment with probiotics, the EASI score was significantly improved (p<0.0001), 50% of the patients experienced improvement of their eczema, and significant improvement of the pruritus was also observed (p=0.0002). The effect was more pronounced for the patients with very high IgE levels (>1,000 ku/l) or for the patients with moderate disease severity. There was no significant difference in the therapeutic effects between the childhood AD and adolescent and adult AD patients. There were no significant changes of cytokines, as well as the total IgE and ECP levels, in the patients' serum. Treatment with the mixture of four probiotic strains was generally well tolerated. Our results suggest that the treatment with the mixture of four probiotic strains is beneficial for the management of the adolescent and adult AD patients, as well as for the childhood AD patients.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.136-144
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• 2003

Oral administration of antigen has long been considered as a promising alternative for the treatment of chronic autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and oral application of type II collagen (CII) has been proven to improve pathogenic symptoms in RA patients without problematic side effects. To further current understandings about the immune suppression mechanisms mediated by orally administered antigens, we examined the changes in IgG subtypes, T-cell proliferative response, and proportion of interleukin (IL)-10 producing Th subsets in a time course study of collagen induced arthritis (CIA) animal models. We found that joint inflammation in CIA mouse peaked at 5 weeks after first immunization with CII, which was significantly subdued in mice pre-treated by repeated oral administration of CII. Orally tolerized mice also showed increase in their serum level of IgG1, while the level of IgG2a was decreased. T-cell proliferation upon CII stimulation was also suppressed in lymph nodes of mice given oral administration of CII compared to non-tolerized controls. When cultured in vitro in the presence of CII, T-cells isolated from orally tolerized mice presented higher proportion of $CD4^+IL-10^+$ subsets compared to non-tolerized controls. Interestingly, such increase in IL-10 producing cells were obvious first in Peyer's patch, then by 5 weeks after immunization, in mesenteric lymph node and spleen instead. This result indicates that a particular subset of T-cells with immune suppressive functions might have migrated from the original contact site with CII to inflamed joints via peripheral blood after 5 weeks post immunization.

• 한국식품영양과학회지
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• 제43권3호
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• pp.349-354
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• 2014

세포내 $Ca^{{+}{+}}$의 증가는 비만세포에서 수용체 활성을 거치지 않고 탈과립을 유도한다. 괴화는 천연 염색 재료로 사용되고 있으며, 또한 항염증 작용과 $Fc{\varepsilon}RI$와 IgE 가교에 의한 항알레르기 효능도 보고되었다. 이번 연구에서 비만세포에서 $Ca^{{+}{+}}$ 유입에 의해 생산되는 알레르기 매개물에 대한 괴화 추출물의 조절 기능을 보고한다. 괴화 추출물은 A23187에 의해 유도되는 IL-4와 TNF-${\alpha}$의 생산과 탈과립을 저해하였다. 또한 괴화 추출물은 DNFB로 유도한 알레르기 피부염의 동물 모델에서 알레르기 반응을 억제하였다. 괴화추출물 50 mg/kg을 경구투여 또는 도말을 한 경우, DNFB를 단독으로 처리한 군보다 IL-4, TNF 그리고 IFN-${\gamma}$와 같은 염증성 사이토카인의 생산량이 감소하였다. 또한 괴화 추출물을 처리한 경우 혈청 내 IgE의 함량이 DNFB를 단독으로 처리한 군보다 감소하였다. 괴화 추출물을 처리한 군에서의 비장과 림프절의 무게도 DNFB를 단독으로 처리한 군보다 감소하였다. 이러한 결과를 토대로 괴화는 비만세포에서 $Fc{\varepsilon}RI$ 자극뿐만 아니라 $Ca^{{+}{+}}$의 유입에 의한 항알레르기 효능이 있다는 것을 보고한다.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권10호
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• pp.5825-5831
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• 2013

Background/Objectives: Maintenance of cellular function in culture is vital for transfer and development following adoptive immunotherapy. Dual properties of IL-21 in activating T cells and reducing activation induced cell death led us to explore the mechanism of action of IL-21 enhanced proliferation and cytotoxic potential of CIK cells. Method: CIK cells cultured from PBMCs of healthy subjects were stimulated with IL-21 and cellular viability and cytotoxicity to K562 cells were measured. To elucidate the mechanism of action of IL-21, mRNA expression of cytotoxic factors was assessed by RT-PCR and protein expression of significantly important cytotoxic factors and cytokine secretion were determined through flow cytometry and ELISA. Western blotting was performed to check the involvement of the JAK/STAT pathway following stimulation. Results: We found that IL-21 did not enhance in vitro proliferation of CIK cells, but did increase the number of cells expressing the CD3+/CD56+ phenotype. Cytotoxic potential was increased with corresponding increase in perforin ($0.9831{\pm}0.1265$ to $0.7592{\pm}0.1457$), granzyme B ($0.4084{\pm}0.1589$ to $0.7319{\pm}0.1639$) and FasL ($0.4015{\pm}0.2842$ to $0.7381{\pm}0.2568$). Interferon gamma and TNF-alpha were noted to increase ($25.8{\pm}6.1ng/L$ to $56.0{\pm}2.3ng/L$; and $5.64{\pm}0.61{\mu}g/L$ to $15.14{\pm}0.93{\mu}g/L$, respectively) while no significant differences were observed in the expression of granzyme A, TNF-alpha and NKG2D, and NKG2D. We further affirmed that IL-21 signals through the STAT-3 and STAT-5b signaling pathway in the CIK cell pool. Conclusion: IL-21 enhances cytotoxic potential of CIK cells through increasing expression of perforin, granzyme B, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. The effect is brought about by the activation of STAT-3 and STAT-5b proteins.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.140-146
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• 2000

Recently, we reported that immunostimulation of primary rat cortical astrocyte caused stimulation of glucose deprivation induced apoptotic cell death. To enhance the understanding of the mechanism of the potentiated cell death of clucose-deprived astrocyte by immunostimulation, we investigated the effect of immunostimulation on the glucose deprivation induced cell death of rat C6 glioma cells. Co-treatment of C6 glioma cells with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, $1\;{\mu}\textrm{g}/ml$) and interferon ${\gamma}(IFN{\gamma},\;100U/ml)$ is serum free condition caused marked elevationo f nitric oxide production ($>50\;{\mu}M$). In this condition, glucose deprivation caused significant release of lactate dehdrogenase (LDH) from C6 glioma cells while control cells did not show LDH release. To investigate whether elevated level of nitric oxide is responsible for the enhanced LDH release in glucose-deprived condition, C6 glioma cells were treated with 3-morphorinosydnonimine (SIN-1) and it was observed that SIN-1 caused increase in LDH release from glucose-deprived C6 glioma cells. Treatment of C6 glioma cells with $25\;{\mu}M$ of pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC) which inhibit Nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) activation, caused complete inhibition of nitric oxide production. Treatment of C6 glioma cells with NO synthase inhibitors, $N^{G}$-nitro-L-arginine (NNA) or L-$N{\omega}$-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), caused inhibition of nitric oxide production and also glucose deprivation induced cell death of cytokine-stimulated C6 glioma cells. In addition, diaminohydroxypyrimidine (DAHP, 5 mM) which inhibits the synthesis of tetrahydrobiopterine (BH4), one of essential cofactors for iNOS activity, caused complete inhibition of NO production from immunostimulated C6 glioma cells. The results from the present study suggest that immunostimulation causes potentiation of glucose deprivation induced death of C6 glioma cells which is mediated at least in part by the increased production of nitric oxide. The vulnerability of immunostimulated C6 glioma cells to hypoglycemic insults may implicate that the elevated level of cytokines in various ischemic and neurodegenerative diseases may play a role in their pathogenesis.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제38권11호
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• pp.966-974
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• 2015

Despite the presence of toll like receptor (TLR) expression in conventional $TCR{\alpha}{\beta}$ T cells, the direct role of TLR signaling via myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) within T lymphocytes on graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) remains unknown. In the allo-SCT model of C57BL/6 ($H-2^b$) ${\rightarrow}$ B6D2F1 ($H-2^{b/d}$), recipients received transplants of wild type (WT) T-cell-depleted (TCD) bone marrow (BM) and splenic T cells from either WT or MyD88 deficient (MyD88KO) donors. Host-type ($H-2^d$) P815 mastocytoma or L1210 leukemia cells were injected either subcutaneously or intravenously to generate a GVHD/GVL model. Allogeneic recipients of MyD88KO T cells demonstrated a greater tumor growth without attenuation of GVHD severity. Moreover, GVHD-induced GVL effect, caused by increasing the conditioning intensity was also not observed in the recipients of MyD88KO T cells. In vitro, the absence of MyD88 in T cells resulted in defective cytolytic activity to tumor targets with reduced ability to produce IFN-${\gamma}$ or granzyme B, which are known to critical for the GVL effect. However, donor T cell expansion with effector and memory T-cell differentiation were more enhanced in GVHD hosts of MyD88KO T cells. Recipients of MyD88KO T cells experienced greater expansion of Foxp3- and IL4-expressing T cells with reduced INF-${\gamma}$ producing T cells in the spleen and tumor-draining lymph nodes early after transplantation. Taken together, these results highlight a differential role for MyD88 deficiency on donor T-cells, with decreased GVL effect without attenuation of the GVHD severity after experimental allo-SCT.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.313-320
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• 2014

The study was conducted to investigate the role of vitamin E in the high altitude hypoxia-induced damage to the intestinal barrier in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control (Control), high altitude hypoxia (HH), and high altitude hypoxia + vitamin E (250 mg/kg $BW^*d$) (HV) groups. After the third day, the HH and HV groups were placed in a hypobaric chamber at a stimulated elevation of 7000 m for 5 days. The rats in the HV group were given vitamin E by gavage daily for 8 days. The other rats were given equal volume saline. The results showed that high altitude hypoxia caused the enlargement of heart, liver, lung and kidney, and intestinal villi damage. Supplementation with vitamin E significantly alleviated hypoxia-caused damage to the main organs including intestine, increased the serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p< 0.05), diamino oxidase (DAO) (p< 0.01) levels, and decreased the serum levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2) (p< 0.01), interleukin-4 (IL-4) (p<0.001), interferon-gamma ($IFN-{\gamma}$) (p<0.01) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (p<0.001), and decreased the serum erythropoietin (EPO) activity (p<0.05). Administration of vitamin E significantly increased the S-IgA (p<0.001) in ileum and significantly improved the expression levels of occludin and $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$, and decreased the expression levels of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha and 2 alpha ($HIF-1{\alpha}$ and $HIF-2{\alpha}$), Toll-like receptors (TLR4), P-$I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ p65(NF-${\kappa}B$ P65) in ileum compared to the HH group. This study suggested that vitamin E protectis from intestinal injury caused by high altitude hypoxia environment. These effects may be related to the HIF and TLR4/NF-${\kappa}B$ signaling pathway.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.18-27
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• 2016

Background: It is not clear whether ginseng affects cyclosporine A (CsA)-induced desirable immunosuppressive action. In this study, we evaluated the immunological influence of combined treatment of ginseng with CsA. Methods: Using CD4+ T cells from mouse spleens stimulated with the T cell receptor (TCR) or allogeneic antigen-presenting cells (APCs), we examined the differentiation of naïve T cells into T helper 1 (Th1), Th2, Th17, and regulatory T cells (Tregs), and their cytokine production during treatment by Korean Red Ginseng extract (KRGE) and/or CsA. The influence of KRGE on the allogeneic T cell response was evaluated by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). We also evaluated whether signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and STAT5 are implicated in this regulation. Results: Under TCR stimulation, KRGE treatment did not affect the population of CD4+interferon gamma ($IFN{\gamma}$)+ and CD4+interleukin (IL)-4+ cells and their cytokine production compared with CsA alone. Under the Th17-polarizing condition, KRGE significantly reduced the number of CD4+IL-17+ cells and CD4+/phosphorylated STAT3 (p-STAT3)+ cells, but increased the number of CD4+CD25+forkhead box P3 (Foxp3)+ cells and CD4+/p-STAT5+ cells compared with CsA alone. In allogeneic APCs-stimulated CD4+ T cells, KRGE significantly decreased total allogeneic T cell proliferation. Consistent with the effects of TCR stimulation, KRGE reduced the number of CD4+IL-17+ cells and increased the number of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ cells under the Th17-polarizing condition. Conclusion: KRGE has immunological benefits through the reciprocal regulation of Th17 and Treg cells during CsA-induced immunosuppression.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.23-35
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• 2005

본 연구에서는 전침자극이 면역계의 THl/TH2 분화평형에 미치는 영향과 opioid system 과의 관계를 알아보고자 DNP-KLH의 자극을 통해 IgE 매개 알러지 반응모델을 구축하고 족삼리(足三里).에 전침자극을 가한 후 TH1/TH2 분화평형 및 opioid receptor antagonist인 naloxone에 의 한 반전여부를 확인하기 위해 total IgE, antigen-specific IgE, IFN-${\gamma}$ 및 IL-4 mRNA 발현량을 측정하여 다음과 같은 결과를 얻었다. 1. 전침자극은 DNP-KLH로 인해 과도하게 생산 된 혈청 total IgE 및 antigen-specific IgE를 감소시킴으로서 알러지 반응에 대한 유의한 억제능을 발휘하였으며, naloxone 투여로 전침 의 효과가 상쇠된 것으로 미루어 opioid system이 전침에 의한 항알러지 효과에 중요한 역할을 하는 것으로 추정된다. 2. 또한 전침자극은 DNP-KLH로 인한 TH2 cytokine의 편향상태에 대하여 TH1/TH2 평형조절능을 가진다는 것을 확인하였으며, naloxone으로 반전되지 않는 것으로 미루어 전침이 미치는 보조 T cell 분화에 대한 효과 는 opioid system에 의존하지 않는 것으로 추정된다.

• 한국식품영양과학회지
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.28-34
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• 2006

갈근(Puerariae Radix)의 $70\%$ ethanol 추출물 중 ethyl acetate 분획물(EPR)은 염증성 cytokine을 처리한 마우스 대식세포 및 토기 연골조직세포에서 염증의 발현과 관련된 NO 생성 저해효과를 보였고, 관절조직의 주요 성분 중 하나인 proteoglycan의 분해 억제효과와 관절조직 분해효소인 MMP-9의 활성이 억제되었다. 또한, 통증유발물질인 프로스타글란딘의 유의성 있는 감소를 보여 통증억제 효과가 있음을 확인하였을 뿐만 아니라 초산 유발 진통 효과테스트인 동물 모델에서도 효과적으로 통증을 억제함을 확인하였다. 즉, 갈근의 $70\%$ ethanol 추출물 중 ethyl acetate 분획물(EPR)은 독성의 문제뿐만 아니라, 소염, 진통 효과 및 연골 조직세포의 분해를 억제하는 다양한 효과를 나타내는 장점을 지니고 있어 관절염 치료제의 훌륭한 후보약재가 될 것으로 기대된다.