Echinacea purpurea Protects Against Restraint Stress-Induced Immunosuppression in BALB/c Mice

Seonyoung Park, Mak Soon Lee, Sunyoon Jung, Seohyun Lee, Oran Kwon, Matthias Heinrich Kreuter, Tania Perrinjaquet-Moccetti, Bokkee Min, Seong Ho Yun, Yangha Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Echinacea purpurea has been widely used for the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory tract infections and the common cold. The restraint stress has been reported to suppress a broad spectrum of immune functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of the pressed juice of E. purpurea (L.) Moench (EFLA®894; Echinacea) against restraint stress-induced immunosuppression in BALB/c mice. Echinacea significantly normalized the restraint stress-induced reduction in splenocyte proliferation and splenic natural killer (NK) cell activity (P < .05). Echinacea treatment significantly increased the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in the blood (P < .05). In addition, Echinacea restored serum cytokine levels, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and interleukin-17 (IL-17), as well as the mRNA expressions of these cytokines in spleen (P < .05). Our findings suggest that Echinacea might have beneficial effects on restraint stress-induced immunosuppression by increasing splenocyte proliferation and NK cell activity, while modulating T lymphocyte subsets and cytokine levels in the blood.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)261-268
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Medicinal Food
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Frutarom, Switzerland; Novarex, Republic of Korea; and PRogram for Industrial needs - Matched Education (PRIME), Ewha Womans University funded by the Ministry of Education of Korea.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition.

Keywords

  • Echinacea purpurea
  • NK cell
  • T lymphocyte
  • cytokines
  • immune
  • restraint stress

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