Studies on the Effect of Selected Oriental Herbal Medicines on Inhibitory Activity of Airway Mucus Secretion

정천화담탕(定喘化痰湯) 등 수종 방제의 호흡기 객담분비 조절 효능에 관한 실험적 연구

In the present study, the author intended to investigate whether three oriental medical prescriptions named Jeongcheonhwadam-tang(JHT), Haengso-tang(HST), Socheungryong-tang(SCRT) significantly affect mucin release from cultured hamster tracheal surface epithelial (HTSE) cells. The results were as follows: (1) JHT significantly inhibited mucin release from cultured HTSE cells, without significant cytotoxicity : (2) HST significantly inhibited mucin release from cultured HTSE cells, without significant cytotoxicity : (3) SCRT significantly inhibited mucin release from cultured HTSE cells, without significant cytotoxicity : (4) JHT, HST chiefly inhibited the 'mucin' release and did not significantly affect the release of the other releasable glycoproteins with less molecular weight than mucin. These results suggest that the three herbal prescriptions specifically inhibit the release of mucin: (5) JHT significantly inhibited the expression levels of MUC SAC mRNA. This result suggests that JHT affects the synthesis of mucin at gene level in cultured HTSE cells. All agents showed no significant cytotoxicity. In view of these results, further investigation of the effects of JHT and HST are likely to be instrumental in yielding novel agents from oriental medical prescriptions which have inhibitory effects or expectorative effects on airway mucus secretion.