Effects of Saiboku-to on the survival of human eosinophils

In recent years, bronchial asthma has come to be regarded as a chronic infl ammatory disease of the respiratory tract, with mast cells, lymphocytes and eosinophils playing important roles in its pathogenesis. Proteins containe d in eosinophil granules, especially major basic protein (MBP), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO), can cause tissue injury. When stimulated, eosinophils rel ease mediators such as leukotriene C-4 (LTC4) and platelet activating facto rs (PAF). Thus, they are recognized as effector cells that are actively inv olved in the development of allergic inflammation. In this study, eosinophi ls from healthy volunteers were used to investigate the effects of Saiboku- to on eosinophils whose survival had been prolonged through stimulation wit h eosinophil-activating cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-3, IL-5 and gran ulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factors (GM-CSF). As a result, the cy tokine-enhanced survival of eosinophils was significantly shortened by the addition of Saiboku-to. These findings suggest that Saiboku-to has the pote ntial to inhibit allergic responses by directly affecting eosinophils which are related to allergic inflammation. (C)1999 Prous Science. All rights re served.