Abstract
This study was aimed at reconfirming the antitumor activity of Panax ginseng-fruit extract (PG-FE) and examining its antitumor mechanism in viewpoint of its cytokine productions. Female ICR mice (7-week-old) were used. Mice were orally pretreated with PG-FE (50mg/kg/day) for 10 days, and were intraabdominally [for life span, cluster of differentiation (CD)4+ and CD8+ T-cells, helper T (Th)1 and Th2 cells, cytokines] and axillo-subcutaneously (for tumor inhibition ratio) inoculated with Sarcoma-180 (S-180) (2×106 or 1×103 cells) one day after the last day of its pretreatment. We collected blood and extirpated spleens on Day-1 and -7 after the inoculation to determine the above parameters. We prepared floating spleen-cell-solutions in culture media. After 24hour-cultivation, interleukin (IL)-12, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (INF)-γ, and IL-2 in the media were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte line-2 cell bioassay, respectively. T-cells were measured by flow cytometry, using monoclonal antibody. PG-FE significantly decreased the tumor weight by 37.2% on Day-15 and prolonged the life span by 28.7%. CD4+/CD8+ T-cells ratio reduced by S-180 was prevented on Day-1 but not affected on Day-7 by PG-FE. Th1/Th2 cells ratio reduced by S-180 was not affected by PG-FE on Day-1 but prevented on Day-7 by PG-FE. IL-12 reduced by S-180 was nonsignificantly (p= 0.2523 and P= 0.0937, respectively) prevented on Day-1 and -7 by PG-FE. TNF-α increased by S-180 was further potentiated on Day-1, but on the contrary, TNF-α was reduced on Day-7 by PG-FE. IFN-γ and IL-2 unaffected by S-180 on Day-1 and -7 were increased by PG-FE.
The above results demonstrate that PG-FE prevents the reduction of CD4+/CD8+ T-cells and Th1/Th2 cells ratios, and increases the productions of IL-12, TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-2, suggesting that the antitumor activity of PG-FE is based on its cytokine productive effect.
