Immunomodulatory Effects of Kuseonwangdogo-Based Mixed Herbal Formula Extracts on a Cyclophosphamide-Induced Immunosuppression Mouse Model

Figure 5

Representative histopathological images of the thymus, taken from intact or CPA-induced immunosuppressive mice. Noticeable atrophic changes related to the decrease of thymic cortex lymphoid cells were detected in CPA control mice as compared with intact vehicle control mice; consequently the thymus total and cortex thicknesses were significantly decreased in CPA control mice as compared with intact vehicle control mice, respectively. However, these thymic atrophic changes were significantly inhibited by treatment of β-glucan and all three different dosages of MHFe as compared with CPA control mice, respectively. All three different dosages of MHFe-treated mice, especially, showed obvious dose-dependent inhibitory effects on CPA-induced histopathological atrophic changes of the thymus similar to equal dosages of β-glucan, in this experiment; (a) distilled water-administered intact mice (vehicle control); (b) CPA-treated and distilled water-administered control mice (CPA control); (c) CPA-treated and β-glucan 250 mg/kg administered mice (β-glucan); (d) CPA-treated and MHFe 500 mg/kg administered mice (MHFe 500); (e) CPA-treated and MHFe 250 mg/kg administered mice (MHFe 250); (f) CPA-treated and MHFe 125 mg/kg administered mice (MHFe 125); CPA: cyclophosphamide; MHFe: two-sweetener-excluded Kuseonwangdogo-based mixed herbal formula aqueous extracts; CO: cortex; ME: medulla; all Hematoxylin-Eosin stain; scale bar: 400 μm.

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