Preventive effects of skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis) extract in a mouse model of food allergy

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• 作者：Hee Soon Shin¹ ; Min-Jung Bae¹ ; Sun Young Jung ; Dong-Hwa Shon ; ^{dhs95@kfri.re.kr" class="auth_mail}
• 关键词：APC ; antigen presenting cell ; D-PBS ; Dulbecco壮s phosphate-buffered saline ; Foxp3 ; forkhead box P3 ; IFN ; interferon ; Ig ; immunoglobulin ; IL ; interleukin ; MLN ; mesenteric lymph node ; OVA ; ovalbumin ; TGF ; transforming growth factor ; Th ; T helper ; Treg ; regulatory T
• 刊名：Journal of Ethnopharmacology
• 出版年：14 May 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：153
• 期：3
• 页码：667-673
• 全文大小：937 K

文摘

Food allergy, which accompanies acute symptoms such as pruritus, vomiting, diarrhea, and lethal anaphylactic shock is an increasing clinical problem. Skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi) has been widely used as a traditional herbal medicine to treat inflammation, cancer, and allergy, but its effects in treating food allergy are not yet known.

Materials and methods

To examine the effect of skullcap on food allergy, female BALB/c mice were sensitized with 20 渭g OVA and 2 mg alum by intraperitoneal injection on day 0. From day 17, mice were orally challenged with OVA (50 mg) in saline every 3 days, for a total of six times. To investigate the preventive effect, skullcap (25 mg/kg) was orally administered every day from day 17 to 34.

Results

Food allergy symptoms were evaluated by the criteria for diarrhea, anaphylactic response, and rectal temperature. Severe symptoms of food allergy were observed in the sham group (diarrhea, 3 points; anaphylactic response, 2.6 points; rectal temperature, −8.36 °C. In contrast, the skullcap treatment group had a significantly suppressed OVA-induced anaphylactic response (1.3 points) and rectal temperature (−4.76 °C). Moreover, both OVA-specific IgE, Th17 cytokine (IL-17), and Th2-related cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13), which increased with food allergy, were significantly inhibited by skullcap treatment.

Conclusion

We demonstrate that the administration of skullcap attenuates OVA-induced food allergy symptoms through regulating systemic immune responses of Th cells. These results indicate that skullcap may be a potential candidate as a preventive agent for food allergy.