Pristane, a pure alkane, is known to induce plasma cell dyscrasias in BALB/c mice. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term dietary administration of Echinacea purpurea on immune and hemopoietic cell populations of the spleen and bone marrow, of normal and plasmacytoma-bearing mice. The results revealed quantitative cell lineage-specific changes in both the spleen and bone marrow of pristane-exposed animals. Moreover, the consumption of Echinacea resulted in cancellation of the pristane-mediated negative effects on NK cells and nucleated erythroid cells. Echinacea administration over the long-term resulted in a prolongation of the onset of old age mediated deaths by 120 days, and indeed resulted in a 30% increase in survival at age of 400 days when 55% of normal mice, consuming an untreated diet, were dead. In contrast, however, Echinacea did not improve the lifespan of plasmacytoma-bearing animals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.80232 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Brousseau, Mélanie |
| Contributors | Miller, Sandra (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002141350, proquestno: AAIMQ98601, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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