Interleukin 1 (IL-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) are proinflammatory cytokines which control many features of physiological and inflammatory responses. We studied the modulatory effect of Sairei-to on the production of three cytokines from peritoneal macrophages of mice. The macrophages were cultivated with LPS and Sairei-to or Sairei-to alone for 20 hrs and then each cytokine in the cultured supernatants was estimated by the bioassay or ELISA. Sairei-to blocked the LPS-induced generation of all cytokines, and this effect was found to be dosedependent. The highest dosage (1, 000 μg/ml) of Sairei-to without LPS induced thein vitroproduction of three cytokines. These findings were supported by the analysis of cytokine mRNA expressions. The LPS-stimulated macrophages from the mice, orally pretreated with Sairei-to for 7 days, did not produce TNFα, when cultivated with and without Sairei-to. In contrast, thein vitroIL-6 generation was significantly induced by the macrophages from the Sairei-to-pretreated mice in spite of the absence of LPS.
These results may demonstrate the dichotomy of pharmacological effects of Sairei-to on the cytokine production from murine macrophages because Sairei-to blocks the cytokine production in macrophages stimulated with LPSin vitro, whereas Sairei-to by itself induces cytokine production in macrophages.
