Skip Navigation



eCAM Advance Access published online on November 9, 2009
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nep166
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S. K.
Right arrow Articles by Bae, H.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kim, S. K.
Right arrow Articles by Bae, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A Parametric Study on the Immunomodulatory Effects of Electroacupuncture in DNP-KLH Immunized Mice

Sun Kwang Kim1,2,3,*, Youngseop Lee1,2,4,*, Hyunjoo Cho1,2, Sungtae Koo4,5, Sun Mi Choi4, Min-Kyu Shin1,2, Moo-Chang Hong1,2, Byung-Il Min6,7 and Hyunsu Bae1,2

1Department of Physiology, College of Oriental Medicine, 2BK21 Oriental Medical Science Center, 3Acupuncture & Meridian Science Research Center, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, 4Department of Medical Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, 5Department of Meridian & Acupoint, School of Oriental Medicine, Busan National University, Busan 609-735, 6Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and 7Department of East-West Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Korea

This study was conducted to compare the effects of low frequency electroacupuncture (EA) and high frequency EA at acupoint ST36 on the production of IgE and Th1/Th2 cytokines in BALB/c mice that had been immunized with 2,4-dinitrophenylated keyhole limpet protein (DNP-KLH), as well as to investigate the difference in the immunomodulatory effects exerted by EA stimulations at acupoint ST36 and at a non-acupoint (tail). Female BALB/c mice were divided into seven groups: normal (no treatments), IM (immunization only), ST36-PA (IM + plain acupuncture at ST36), ST36-LEA [IM + low frequency (1 Hz) EA at ST36], ST36-HEA [IM + high frequency (120 Hz) EA at ST36], NA-LEA [IM + low frequency (1 Hz) EA at non-acupoint] and NA-HEA [IM + high frequency (120 Hz) EA at non-acupoint]. EA stimulation was performed daily for two weeks, and total IgE, DNP-KLH specific IgE, IL-4 and IFN-{gamma} levels were measured at the end of the experiment. The results of this study showed that the IgE and IL-4 levels were significantly suppressed in the ST36-LEA and ST36-HEA groups, but not in the NA-LEA and NA-HEA groups. However, there was little difference in the immunomodulatory effects observed in the ST36-LEA and ST36-HEA groups. Taken together, these results suggest that EA stimulation-induced immunomodulation is not frequency dependent, but that it is acupoint specific.

Keywords: acupoint – DNP-KLH immunized mice – electroacupuncture – frequency – immunomodulation

For reprints and all correspondence: Hyunsu Bae, Department of Physiology, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Korea. Tel: +82-2-961-9316; Fax: +82-2-965-5969; E-mail: hbae{at}khu.ac.kr

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received December 7, 2008; accepted September 30, 2009


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.