ABSTRACT
Juzen-Taiho-To (JTT) is a Japanese herbal medicine that has been administered mainly to patients weakened by long illness. Currently, it has also been used for cancer patients and showed antitumor effects that have been reported as phagocytosis enhancement, cytokine induction and antibody production. In this study, we examined the effect of oral administration of JTT in mice on the immunological restoration of the liver, especially focused on natural killer (NK) T-cell induction. Mice were grouped to receive JTT or placebo orally for a period of 1, 3 and 7 days. After sacrifice, the liver tissue was fixed, embedded and stained with hematoxylineosin and some antibodies by common staining methods. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation was also carried out. Although the JTT-treated mice had the same appearance as the non-JTT-treated mice, their livers were infiltrated by massive mononuclear cells, some of which were aggregated in clusters. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that there was abundant cytokine expression of interleukin (IL)-12 and massive infiltration of mononuclear cells with large granules in the liver of JTT-treated mice. Oral administration of JTT may induce the expression of IL-12 and be followed by immunological restoration such as NK T-cell induction in liver
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology , Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/pathology , Liver/drug effects , Animals , Cytokines/biosynthesis , Female , Immunohistochemistry , Interleukin-12/biosynthesis , Killer Cells, Natural/immunology , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/metabolism , Liver/immunology , Liver/pathology , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Microscopy, Electron, TransmissionABSTRACT
The effectiveness of Mifurol as an adjuvant chemotherapy in colonic cancer patients has been assessed on the basis of long-term survival at various institutions. In the curative resection cases, the outcome of administrations of MMC (0.2 mg/kg x 2) + Mifurol (6-12 mg/kg/day) (group A and MMC (0.2 mg/kg x 2)+ Tegafur (12 mg/kg/day) (group B) was compared. There was no difference in the background factors or in the total amount of the alpha rugs administrated in these two groups. The five-year survival by Kaplan-Meirer's method were 56.1% and 36.1% for group A and B, respectively, the difference being particularly remarkable in Dukes C cases.