The severe debility and immune dysfunction associated with serious
disease may respond well to treatment with the tonic formulas from
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). One of these, Ginseng and Dang
Gui Ten Combination has gained prominence as the formula most
suitable to assist convalescence after chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
A literature review of the herbal combination suggests that it
synergistically provides a broad range of pharmacological activity with
a very low level of toxicity. The herbs may have haemopoietic,
antimutagenic, antitumour, immunomodulatory and anticomplement
activities and they seem to promote lymphocyte activation, interleukin
production, protect various organs against toxicity, inflammation and
ulceration, and promote drug delivery and radiation sensitising while
protecting healthy tissue.
The specific immunomodulatory effects of PS10 combination were
investigated in 10 healthy volunteers (7 males and 3 females aged 43
to 58 years). The study was a longitudinal study (28 days), using a
repeated measures design to investigate the pre and then post
intervention changes in Natural Killer (NK) cell activity as well as total
and differentiated lymphocyte counts. Furthermore, liver function
tests (LFT) were included to assess any adverse effects on the liver. It
was envisaged that NK cells or other white blood cell subset variation
could indicate an immunomodulatory effect of the herbal formulation,
PS10.
Investigative methodologies included NK cell function assessment via
the ability of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) to lyse the human
erythroleukemia cell line K562.(Lozzio and Lozzio, 1975) Target cells
are labelled by incubation with radioactive chromium, washed, then
added to a dilution series of PBMC's and incubated for 4 hours.
Supernatants are harvested and the amount of intracellular chromium-
51 released into the supernatant is measured with a gamma counter.
The amount of chromium-51 released is proportional to the lytic
activity of the NK cells. The gradient of the line of best fit through the
plotted points was recorded as the measure of cytotoxicity or
killing.(Brooks and Flannery, 1980) The steeper the gradient, the
greater the cytotoxicity.
This pilot study demonstrated that the herbal preparation Ginseng and
Dang Gui Ten Combination (PS10) increased the total number of
lymphocytes cells in healthy human volunteers (n=10) (p<0.007).
Although the test formulation increased NK cell activity in some
participants, the change in mean NK cell cytotoxicity was not
significant.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216611 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Thomsen, Michael, n/a |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Michael Thomsen |
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