In order to investigate the effects of Panax ginseng (PG) and Rehmanniae glutinosa (RG) on depression of immune response induced by methotrexate(MTX), the author used ICR mice having a body weight of about 20g as experimental animals dividing them into six groupsSaline, PG, RG, MTX, PG + MTX and RG + MTX group. All of the mice were sensitized i.v. with 108 sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and challenged i.d. with 108 SRBC 4 days later. Such immune responses as delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH), rosette forming cells (RFC), hemagglutinin titer (HA titer) and hemolysin titer (HL titer) were measured at 24 hours after challenge.
The results were as follows:
1. DTH was increased in PG & RG group as compared with Saline group and in PG + MTX & RG + MTX group as compared with MTX group.
2. RFC was increased in PG & RG group as compared with Saline group and in PG + MTX & RG + MD( group as compared with MTX group.
3. HA titer was increased in PG group as compared with Saline group and in PG + MTX & RG + MTX group as compared with MTX group.
4. HL titer was increased in PG & RG group as compared with Saline group and in PG + MTX &"RG + MTX group as compared with MTX group.
The inference from the above results is, that Panax ginseng and Rehmanniae glutinosa enhance the cell-mediated and humoral immune response and that they restrain the depression of cell-mediated and humoral immune response induced by MTX.
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