• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.332-345
• /
• 2002

It is a recent observation that about 80 per cent of the body's immune system is localized in the gastrointestinal tract. This explains to a large extent why eating right is important for the modulation the immune response and prevention of disease. In addition it is increasingly recognized that the body has an important digestive system also in the lower gastrointestinal tract where numerous important substances are released by microbial enzymes and absorbed. Among these substances are short chain fatty acids, amino acids, various carbohydrates, poly-amines, growth factors, coagulation factors, and many thousands of antioxidants, not only traditional vitamins but numerous flavonoids, carotenoids and similar plant- and vegetable produced antioxidants. Also consumption of health-promoting bacteria (probiotics) and vegetable fibres (prebiotics) from numerous sources are known to have strong health-promoting influence. It has been calculated that the intestine harbours about 300,000 genes, which is much more than the calculated about 60,000 for the rest of the human body, indicating a till today totally unexpected metabolic activity in this part of the GI tract. There are seemingly several times more active enzymes in the intestine than in the rest of the body, ready to release hundred thousand or more of substances important for our health and well-being. In addition do the microbial cells produce signal molecules similar to cytokines but called bacteriokines and nitric oxide, with provide modulatory effects both on the mucosal cells, the mucosa- associated lymphoid system (MALT) and the rest of the immune system. Identification of various fermentation products, and often referred to as synbiotics, studies of their role in maintaining health and well-being should be a priority issue during the years to come.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2000

Objectives : Acupuncture is expected to have somewhat like the efficacy parallel increasing activity of immune system in Western modem medicine. There, already, are many animal researches on activating effect of acupuncture for the immune system in peripheral organs. So, we carried out this experiment to see whether acupuncture has controlling effect on interleukin-6(IL-6) activity in rat's brain. Methods and Results : We had topical application of IL-6(1U=lpg, $10{\mu}l$) on brain of rat. It reduced afferent sensory transmission to the primary somatosensory(SI) cortex from periphery. Whereas, electrical stimulation(ES, 2Hz, 1.5V, 15min) of ST36(足三里) with application of IL-6 prominently activated afferent sensory transmission. ES of non-acupoint(proximal tail) with IL-6 showed suppression of afferent transmission. ES of ST36 without IL-6 application also exerted facilitation of afferent transmission to the SI cortex. Conclusions : Electoacupuncture(EA) on ST36 has noticeable influences on modulating activation of IL-6 in central nervous system, which do major role in immune system.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.217-226
• /
• 2006

Malignant gliomas are the most common type of primary brain tumor and are in great need of novel therapeutic approaches. Advances in treatment have been very modest, significant improvement in survival has been lacking for many decades, and prognosis remains dismal. Despite "gross total" surgical resections and currently available radio-chemotherapy, malignant gliomas inevitably recur due to reservoirs of notoriously invasive tumor cells that infiltrate adjacent and non-adjacent areas of normal brain parenchyma. In principle, the immune system is uniquely qualified to recognize and target these infiltrative pockets of tumors cells, which have generally eluded conventional treatment approaches, In the span of the last 10 years, our understanding of the cancer-immune system relationship has increased exponentially; and yet we are only beginning to tease apart the intricacies of the central nervous system and immune cell interactions. This article reviews the complex associations of the immune system with brain tumors. We provide an overview of currently available treatment options for malignant gliomas, existing gaps in our knowledge of brain tumor immunology, and strategies that might be exploited for improved design of "custom immunotherapeutics." We will also examine major new immunotherapy approaches that are being actively investigated to treat patients with malignant glioma, and identify some current and future research priorities in this area.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.294-312
• /
• 2023

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of GGX on an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma mice model. Methods: Balb/c mice were challenged with OVA and then treated with three concentrations of GGX (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg). After sacrifice, the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) or lungs of the mice were analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, ELISA, real-time PCR, H&E, Masson's trichrome, PAS and AB-PAS staining, and immunohistofluorescence staining. Results: GGX significantly inhibited the increase of total cells, immune cells (lymphocyte, neutrophils, macrophage, CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD69+, CD62L-CD44high+, Gr-1+SiglecF-), and the expression of cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, IFN-γ) in BALF. It also significantly inhibited the increase of total cells, immune cells (lymphocyte, neutrophils, eosinophil/macrophage, CD3+, CD19+, CD3+CD193+, CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD69+, CD62L-CD44high+, and Gr-1+SiglecF-), and the expression of IL-13, TARC, and MCP-1 in lung tissue. GGX decreased the severity of histological lung injury and the expressions of STAT3 and GATA3. Conclusion: This study suggests the probability of using GGX for the treatment of asthma by inhibiting inflammatory immune response.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.183-187
• /
• 1986

Some of organophosphate pesticides which are the most heavily used in Korea, were examined for their effects on the murine immune system. Immunotoxicological assay parameters adaopted in this study were Arthus reaction for humoral immunity, delayed type hypersensitivity reaction for cell mediate immunity, carbon clearance for macrophage function and susceptiility to tumor challenge. Subchronic exposure of rodents to the pesticides resulted in the marked suppression of immune functions and enhancement of susceptibility to tumor challenge. Among the pesticides tested (fenitrothion, fenthion, diazinon and EPN), fenitrothion was the most suppressive in Arthus and delayed type hypersensitivity reaction.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.115-119
• /
• 2003

There has been continuing interest in the development of synthetic and natural compounds that modify the immune response particularly for the treatment of AIDS and cancer. During the past fifty years, numerous scientific studies have been published on ginseng. Modem human studies have investigated preventive effect of ginseng on several kinds of cancer, its long term immunological effect on HIV patients, its effect on cell mediated immune functions in healthy volunteers. Similarly non clinical studies on animal model system have studied the chemopreventive action of ginseng on cancer and immunological properties of ginseng. The precise mechanism of action of ginseng, however, not clearly understood. Considering its wide-ranging therapeutic effects, this study is being undertaken to elucidate the general mode of action of ginseng, especially to test our hypothesis that its biological action may be mediated by the immune system.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.837-840
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of Eunkyo-San(EKS) on the immune system. Administration of EKS(500 mg/kg) enhanced viability of splenocytes and thymocytes in BALB/c mice, and also EKS increased of splenic B, T lymphocytes and thymic T lymphocytes, significantly increased CD4 positive TH cells. EKS markedly enhanced the production of -interferon in mice serum. EKS accelerated the production of nitric oxide in peritoneal macrophages. These results suggest that EKS have an immune-enhancing activity.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.10 no.12
• /
• pp.1119-1126
• /
• 2004

This paper presents optimized structured treatment interruption to reduce medication and establish long-term immune response against HIV-infection. Understanding HIV-related immune system control enables better HIV therapy without using full­treatments. Discrete regimen and continuous regimen characteristics are compared. Controllability of HIV-related immune system is analyzed for better understanding of optimal control in HIV therapy. Using optimal control provides more effective therapy than the full treatment without interruption in terms of controllability analysis. Case studies indicates that the proposed therapy induces long-erm non-progression while preserving high CD4 T-helper cell count and low virus load in HIV-infected patients.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.415-424
• /
• 2002

In this paper, a robust fuzzy precompensated PID controller using immune algorithm for load frequency control of 2-area power system is proposed. Here, a fuzzy precompensated PID controller is designed as a fuzzy logic based precompensation approach for PID controller. This scheme is easily implemented by adding a fuzzy precompensator to an existing PID controller. We optimize the fuzzy precompensator with an immune algorithm for complementing the demerit such as the difficulty of the component selection of fuzzy controller, namely, scaling factor, membership function and fuzzy rules. Simulation results show that the proposed robust load frequency controller can achieve good performance even in the presence of generation rate constraints.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.54-58
• /
• 1994

BALB/C mice were intraperitoneally injected with methamphetamine (5 mg/kg) to observe the effect of methamphetamine on the immune system. Body weights were decreased in both acutely treated group (twice for 2 weeks with 7 days interval) and subchronically treated group (daily injection for 14 days). The relative spleen weights and the numbers of splenocytes were unexpectedly increased (p<0.05) in acutely treated group, but subchronically treated group showed the trend of decrease without significance. But there was no significant effect on antibody formation to hen egg Iysozyme which was immunized during the treatment of methamphetamine and on plaque forming cell number. The relative thymus weights of both groups were significantly decreased by the treatment of methamphetamine (acutely treated group, p<0.05; subchronically treated group, p<0.01). These results suggest that the effect of methamphetamine on the immune system may be caused by thymic dysfunction.