COMBINED TREATMENTS WITH NINJIN-YOUEI-TO (REN-SHEN-YANG-RONG-TANG) PLUS A SUBOPTIMAL DOSE OF PREDNISOLONE ON AUTOIMMUNE NEPHRITIS IN MRL LPR MICE/

MRL/lpr mice suffer from a systemic lupus erythematosus-like autoimmun e disease. We studied the effects of oral treatments with Ninjin-youei -to (NYT, Ren-shen-yang-rong-tang, 1000 mg/kg/day), a suboptimal dose (2 mg/kg/day) of prednisolone(PSL) and their combination on nephritis in MRL/lpr mice. Treatments with NYT or PSL alone inhibited the develo pment of proteinuria and prolonged survival. The combined treatment re duced the incidence of proteinuria and prolonged survival. In histolog ical analysis, NYT treatments decreased the degree of mesangial prolif erative glomerulonephritis and infiltration of mononuclear cells in th e kidneys. PSL treatment was effective in reducing periglomerular neph ritis and vasculitis in addition to such effects as NYT and NYT plus P SL treatment was more effective than PSL alone. The active form of TGF -beta was reduced in NYT and PSL-treated mouse serum, and the combined treatments further suppressed it. However, the treatment with NYT alo ne did not induce a decrease in the latent form of TGF-beta. The effec t of NYT can be assumed to be different from an immunosuppressive effe ct of PSL. Therefore, the combined treatment with NYT and PSL can be e xpected to be more useful for the therapy of autoimmune disease such a s nephritis, compared with NYT or PSL alone treatments. (C) 1998 Inter national Society for Immunopharmacology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.