キドウ エンショウ チリョウヤク ノ タンサク ト ソノ ヤクリガクテキ トクセイ ニカンスル ケンキュウ : カンポウヤク オヨビ グリチルリチン ノ グルココルチコイドヨウ イデンシ ハツゲン チョウセツ サヨウ

Chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are characterized by neutrophilia in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) as well as by an increase of neutrophil chemoatractants, such as interleukin (IL)-8. It is commonly believed that the treatment of the neutrophil-dependent inflammation must be the most important to prevent the progression of these diseases. However, the cellular inflammation or increased protease burden in COPD is often insensitive to glucocorticoid, which is the most useful drug to treat other inflammatory lung diseases, such as asthma. In addition, prolonged treatment of glucocorticoid causes severe side effects even in glucocorticoid-sensitive patients. Therefore, there are only a few therapeutic drugs for treatment of these diseases. On the other hand, clinical usage of traditional herbal medicines for chronic diseases has been increasing. Herbal medicines tend to have minor side effects and sometimes produce remarkable efficacy on airway inflammation. Therefore, the first part of this study was designed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of Hochu-ekki-to in neutrophil-dependent lung inflammation, using SO2 gas-exposed rats, and to examine the mechanism of anti-inflammatory effect of Hochu-ekki-to with in vitro experiments. Then I have characterized the regulatory effect of glycyrrhizin (GL), an active component of Hochu-ekki-to, on IL-8 gene expression, comparing that of dexamethasone (DEX)