Abstract

IMMUNOMODULATORY EFFECT OF CNIDIUM OFFICINALE MAKINO EXTRACT IN MURINE PERITONEAL MACROPHAGES AND SPLENOCYTES

Joseph dela Cruz ¹, Woo Sik Lee² , Kwon-Taek Yi³ and Seong Gu Hwang²*

ABSTRACT

Cnidium officinale Makino (COM) called “Chun Gung” in Korea is one of the fundamental plants that have been used as a traditional medicinal plant in Asia for a long time. Current study investigates the biological effect and action mechanism of the ethanol extract from COM on the release of inflammatory mediators in murine peritoneal macrophages and splenocytes. Our results showed that COM (up to 0.40 mg/ml) dose-dependently increased splenocyte proliferation with or without mitogen stimulation. In RT-PCR analysis, COM inhibited the production of proinflammatory mediators; TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-4 in splenocytes and nitric oxide (NO) in LPS stimulated macrophages. On the other hand, IL-2, IL-12 and IFN-γ expression was significantly increased by COM treatment. Flow Cytometry Analysis (FACS) demonstrated a dose dependent increase in the T cell and B cell population after COM treatment for 24 hours. The present results indicate that COM extract showed evidences of immunomodulating activity through stimulated immune cell growth, modulating Th1/Th2 cytokine production and anti-inflammatory effect which may have potential use as an immunotherapeutic agent.

Keywords: Cnidium officinale Makino; Immunomodulation; Peritoneal macrophage; Splenocytes.