• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.75-87
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to inquire into the effect of different concentrations of bee venom pharmacopuncture to inhibit genesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines and to inhibit nuclear factor (NF)-${\kappa}B$ activation on type II collagen induced arthritis. Methods : The experiment was divided into category of the normal group (NOR)-no treated group, control group (CON)-CIA (collagen induced arthritis) induced group, and 4,000 : 1 bee venom group (BV-L)- 4000:1 bee venom pharmacopuncture treated group after CIA, and 2000:1 bee venom group (BV-H)- 2,000 : 1 Bee venom pharmacopuncture treated group after CIA. RA was induced in the mice via injecting $50{\mu}{\ell}$ C II mixed CFA. The bee venom pharmacopuncture was applied on $ST_{35}$ for 19 days from the 3rd day of RA inducement. To research the effect on the expression of IKK ($I{\kappa}B$ kinase), iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) & COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2) mRNA, RT-PCR was performed on synovial membrane cells from the knee joint of CIA mice. Results : The PMA-induced $I{\kappa}B$ kinase (IKK), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase -2 (COX-2) mRNA expression were dose-dependantly decreased in bee venom treated with synoviocytes. In mice treated with bee venom pharmacopuncture, foot thickness and the damage of synovial membranes of the joint was lessened, and the activation of RA-related pro-inflammatory cytokines such as MIF, TNF-${\alpha}$ and MMP-9 was significantly decreased. The activation of iNOS and COX-2 was suppressed by the inhibition of NF-${\kappa}B$. In addition, each data was shown that 2,000 : 1 bee venom pharmacopuncture was more effective than 4,000 : 1 bee venom pharmacopuncture. Conclusions : It is speculated that bee venom pharmacopuncture has the therapeutic effect of palliating the damage of the synovial membrane and inflammation on RA by suppressing of NF-${\kappa}B$ activation.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.307-313
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• 1994

We have previously shown that crude water extract of Euonymus alatus (EA) had strong prophylactic effect against chemically induced-and tumor cell implanted-cancer, and that the mechanisms responsible for its antitumor effects were due to nonspecific enhancement of the NK cell activities and the cell mediated immunity. However, it was unknown that any components of crude extract did work so, since it consisted of several components. In this paper, we fractionated the crude watar EA-extract into several fraction such as hexane-, ethylether-, ethyl acetate-, n-butanol- and water soluble-fraction, and screened the immune regulating activities of each fraction by the evaluation of lymphokine production and activated lymphocyte proliferation. As a result of the component fraction of EA-extract, it was found that n-butanol fraction was a potent immunostimulator, and the remained water soluble fraction also contained some stimulator, But, other fraction did not showed any remarkable effect. It is therefore suggested that EA-glycosides in n-butanol fraction may be new one of the potent biological response modifiers. The present study was also undertaken in an efforts to investigate the effects of elm-bark(EB, Ulmus clavidiana var japonica), which has been used for curing ulcer and inflammation as a folk medicine without any kind of experimental evidence to support this, on the cellular- and humoral-immune responses, lymphocyte function and NK cell activities in mice. Regardless of time and duration of EB-treatment, Arthus reaction and antibody response to SRBC were not modified by EB, but delayed hypersensitivity to SRBC was significantly enhanced only when EB was treated prior to SRBC-sensitization. EB slightly inhibited the proliferation responses of splenocytes to PHA-stimulation, but it significantly augmented the responses of these cells to S aureus Cowan 1 and Con A-activation, and these effects were manifested only when EB was added at culture initiation. EB did not influence Ig secretion of spleen cells but it significantly augmented the Con A-induced 1L 2 and MIF production of splenocytes. NK cell activities of splenocytes were markedly riled when effector cells were pretreated with EB and this augmentation was dine to the increase of binding affinity of effector cells to target cells and the target cell lytic activities of effector cells. These results led to the conclusion that EB triggers increase of cellular immune responses, such as delayed hypersensitivitiy, lymphokine production and NK cell activities. Also these results suggested that EB contains potent immune stimulants, which may provide the rational basis for their therapeutic use as one of the new biological response modifiers.