General Pharmacology: The Vascular System
General papersPanax ginseng blocks morphine-induced thymic apoptosis by lowering plasma corticosterone level
Section snippets
Ginseng saponins
Ginseng saponins (from red ginseng) were kindly provided by the Korea Ginseng and Tobacco Research Institute (Taejeon, Korea).
Animal treatment
Balb/c mice were obtained from the Korea Institute of Chemical Technology Animal Center (Taejeon, Korea) and were maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle. Food and water were freely accessible. Male balb/c mice 4- to 5-weeks old were used. GTS (100 mg/kg, oral) was administered once a day for 9 days, and morphine was subcutaneously injected from the 6th day to the 9th day
Effects of GTS on morphine-induced body-weight loss and lymphoid organ atrophy
As gross estimates of physiological and immunological conditions of the experimental animals, the growth rate and lymphoid organs weights were measured. Table 1 shows the effects of morphine on the increment rate of body weight and spleen and thymus weights, as well as how GTS affects them. Oral administration of GTS (100 mg/kg) alone did not change those parameters. Subcutaneous injection of morphine (20 mg/kg, 4 days) significantly inhibited the body-weight increment. In normal mice, the body
Discussion
Saponins are the most important constituents of ginseng. So far, a majority of the ginseng effects reported could be explained by the pharmacological actions of ginsenosides (ginseng saponins). Our previous stuides showed that GTS could restore morphine-induced depression of B-cell and T-cell functions (Lee et al., 1995). Other than those results, the effects of ginseng on morphine-induced immune suppression have not yet been reported.
The effects of morphine on thymus, spleen, and body weights
Summary
Morphine treatments have been reported to induce severe immunosuppression. In this study, the effects of Panax ginseng on morphine-induced immune suppression were studied. Morphine administration resulted in several immunosuppressions as reported previously. Morphine treatments (20 mg/kg, SC, 4 days) significantly decreased body-weight-increment rate and caused atrophy of immune organs such as the thymus and spleen. The effects of ginseng on spleen atrophy were most prominent. GTS (100 mg/kg,
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported in part by the Research Fund, Korea Tobacco Ginseng Research Institute.
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