Inhibitory Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract on Atopic Dermatitis in NC/Nga Mice

Hyo-Sang Kim; Tae-Ho Oh; Jae-Chan Song; Dae-Ik Kim; Ae-Kyung Lim; Deok-Chun Yang; Jun-Gyo In; Young-Chul Kim; Kil-Soo Kim

doi:10.5625/lar.2010.26.3.265

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Kim, Oh, Song, Kim, Lim, Yang, In, Kim, and Kim: Inhibitory Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract on Atopic Dermatitis in NC/Nga Mice

Original Article

Lab. Anim. Res. 2010;26(3):265-271.

Published online: 17 September 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5625/lar.2010.26.3.265

Inhibitory Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract on Atopic Dermatitis in NC/Nga Mice

Hyo-Sang Kim¹, Tae-Ho Oh², Jae-Chan Song², Dae-Ik Kim³, Ae-Kyung Lim³, Deok-Chun Yang⁴, Jun-Gyo In⁴, Young-Chul Kim⁵, Kil-Soo Kim^2,^∗

¹General Medicine & Women's HealthCare, Bayer Korea Ltd, Seoul, Korea

²College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea

³Daegu Bio Industry Center, Daegu, Korea

⁴Korean Ginseng Center for Most Valuable Products & Ginseng Genetic Resource Bank, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea

⁵College of Natural Sciences, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea

^∗Corresponding author: Kil-Soo Kim, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 1370 Sangyeok-dong, Buk-gu, Daegu 702-701, Korea Tel: +82-53-950-7792 Fax: +82-53-950-5955 E-mail: kskim728@knu.ac.kr

Received 27 April 2010 Revised 1 September 2010 Accepted 3 September 2010

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic eczematous skin disease attended by pruritus, erythema, edema, excoriation, and dryness. This study was to evaluate the effects of Korean red ginseng (RG) on AD in NC/ Nga mice treated with 1-chloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (picryl chloride; PC). Experimental groups were divided into 4 groups; normal control (NC), PC control, and PC-RG (50 and 100 mg/kg). RG was orally administered every day repeatedly during 6 weeks. The skin lesions in severity score, scratching behavior, serum immunoglobulin E (IgE), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) levels, and histological appearance were examined. AD-like lesions were developed on the NC/Nga mice by topical PC applications. Oral administration of RG (50 and 100 mg/kg) significantly suppressed the development of AD, as analyzed by a modified SCORAD score. The scratching behavior decreased after RG administration. The levels of serum IgE, IL-4 and IFN-γ were increased by PC stimulation, but treatment with RG (100 mg/kg) suppressed the increment of the serum IgE, IL-4 and IFN-γ levels. Histologically, RG inhibited dermatitis lesions such as hypertrophy, hyperkeratosis, and infiltration of inflammatory cells into epidermis and dermis. These results suggest that the administration of RG may be effective in alleviating the AD induced by PC.

Keywords: Korean red ginseng, NC/Nga mice, atopic dermatitis, picryl chloride

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Figure 1.

Gross appearance comparison of picryl chloride (PC)-induced atopic dermatitis in NC/Nga mice. NC, negative control; PC, PC control; RG50, red ginseng 50 mg/kg; RG100, red ginseng 100 mg/kg. The photograph shows the back and ears of mice on day 47 after sensitization.

Figure 2.

Changes of skin severity score. The severity of external skin lesions was macroscopically assessed once a week for 6 weeks after the second picryl chloride (PC) application. The total scores of the skin severity were defined as the sum of the individual score grades from score 0 (no symptoms), score 1 (mild), score 2 (moderate), and score 3 (severe) for each of the following 4 signs and symptoms: erythema (hemorrhage), edema, excoriation (erosion), and dryness (scaling). Values are expressed as the mean±S.E.M (n=7). ∗P<0.05 significantly different from negative control group. ^#P<0.05 significantly different from PC control group.

Figure 3.

Changes of skin scratching behavior.

Figure 4.

Effect of the administration of Korean red ginseng on serum levels of IgE, IL-4 and IFN-γ. Values are expressed as the mean±S.E.M (n=7). ∗P<0.05 significantly different from negative control group. ^#P<0.05 significantly different from picryl chloride control group.

Figure 5.

Histological assessment of Korean red ginseng (RG) administration on picryl chloride (PC)-induced atopic dermatitis. The dorsal skins from normal control (NC) group, PC stimulated group (PC) and RG treated [50 mg/kg (RG50) and 100 mg/kg (RG100)] groups after PC stimulation were stained with hematoxylin & eosin. The results shown are representative of three mice in each group. Original magnification (×200).

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