OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of Chinese herbal
medicine (CHM), LCF-2 prescription on serum cytokines,
spleen index and thvmus index in BXSB mice and the mechanisms of treatment of SLE with LCF-2. METHODS BXSB mice were randomly divided into control, CHM, modern medicine (MM) and CHM + MM groups. Spleen index and
thymus index were measured by a method of weight. Serum IL-2, IL-6 and TNF-a were measured by ELISA. RESULTS The thymus index of CHM group was higher than that of controls, but there was no difference in spleen index. MM decreased both spleen index and thymus index. CHM+ MM reduced spleen index (P<0.01) but increased thymus index ( P < 0.05). CHM significantly down-regulated the concentration of TNF-a ( P < 0.05) and up-regulated the concentration of
interleukin-2 (P<0.01). It had no effect on interleukin-6. In contrary, modern medicine significantly inhibited the production of interleukin-6 and TNF-a, and had no effect on interleukin-2. CONCLUSION The results indicated that CHM and MM were effective on BXSB mice but the mechanisms were different. The combination of CHM and MM was superior to single-agent therapy.