TREATMENT EFFECT OF A TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE, REN-SHEN-YANG-RONG-TANG (JAPANESE NAME - NINJIN-YOUEITO), ON AUTOIMMUNE MRL MP-LPR/LPR MICE/

MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mice were treated with a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Renshen-yang-rong-tang (Japanese name: Ninjin-youei-t o, NYT) intraperitoneally (i.p.) every 3 days or per os (p.o.) 6 times /week from before the onset of autoimmune disease (6 weeks of age). Fi fty percent survival time was found in placebo-controlled male and fem ale mice of 28 and 22 weeks of age, respectively. NYT-treatment marked ly prolonged the survival time of MRL/lpr mice. That is, 50% survival time was 43 weeks in the i.p.-treated male mice and 30 weeks of age in the p.o.-treated female mice. Further, NYT-treatment significantly re duced occurrence of thymic atrophy and prevented the anomalous accumul ation of B220+ T-cells in lymphnode and spleen, both of which are char acteristic in MRL/lpr mice. Moreover, grades of proteinuria were signi ficantly reduced in both the i.p.- and p.o.-treated groups compared wi th the control groups. Such clinical benefit and increased survival ti me were interestingly not associated with the decrease in the level of autoantibodies.