Effect of ru'ai shuhou recipe on immune response in HER2/neu tranagenic mice undergoing breast cancer carcinogenesis process / 中国中西医结合杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the immune response induced by HER2/neu oncogene in the breast cancer (BC) carcinogenesis process and the immunological mechanism of Ru'ai Shuhou Recipe (RSR) in the prevention and treatment of BC.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HER2/neu transgenic spontaneous breast tumor model mice were fed with RSR from 5 weeks old, the occurrence of breast tumor in them was observed, and the changes of T cell-mediated immune response and associated cytokines were detected during the carcinogenesis process, i. e., when mice aged between 15 and 25 weeks.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>RSR showed significant effects in postponing and reducing the carcinogenesis of primary breast tumor, up-regulating the amount of T cell in splenic lymphocyte in tumor-bearing mice, promoting the proliferation of T lymphocyte, and inducing the secretion of cytokines such as interleukin-2, interleukin-12 and interferon-y.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>A serial immune response reveals in the carcinogenesis process. The immunologic function of HER-2/neu transgenic mice is significantly different to that of the same strain non-transgenic mice. Effect of RSR in preventing and postponing breast cancer carcinogenesis is possibly realized through enhancing the anti-tumor immune response of transgenic mice themselves.</p>