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Experiment was performed to investigate the immunotoxicity of cadmium administered orally and the effect of ginseng petroleum ether fraction on it. Mice were given 3, 30, or 300 ppm cadmium as cadmium chloride orally in the drinking water and injection of ginseng petroleum ether fraction intraperitoneally for 4 weeks. Mice were sensitized and challenged u’ith sheep red blood cells (5-HBC). Immune response was evaluated by delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH), Rosette forming cell (RFC), phagocyte activity, and natural killer cell activity (NK cell activity). In the present study, cadmium suppressed the cellular immunity, It also depressed phagocyte activity very significantly in all cadmium-administered groups, NK cell activity in the cadmium-300 ppm administered group. Ginseng petroleum ether fraction showed restoring effect on the decrease in RFC by cadmium-administration. Remarkably, it showed very significant restoring effect on the depression of phagocyte activity induced by cadmium-administration. From this result, we suppose that the anti-tumor effect of ginseng ether or petroleum ether extract, which has been reported by some other researchers, is mainly due to the increase of phagocyte activity by it’s administration.
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