3.3. Treatment of porcine placental extract down-regulates the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines
CHS is mainly described as a Th1 type hypersensitivity response although other cell types are also involved. To test whether the protective effect of PE against CHS progression is mediated by changes in effector molecules of immune cells, we measured the cytokine profile from the total draining lymph node cells (Fig. 6A) and CD4+ T cells (Fig. 6B). In accordance with results of reduced inflammation and edema in histological examination (Fig. 5), PE group showed significantly reduced expression levels of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IFN- γ, IL-12 and IL-17 in total lymph node cells (Fig. 6A) and CD4+ T cells (Fig. 6B). These results suggest that healing effect of PE treatment in CHS progression is mediated by down-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine and IL-4 levels in total lymph node cells as well as CD4+ T cells.