11. Enhancement of Immune Responses by GCP

In our immune system, T cells play the important role in immune surveillance. The T cells specifically recognize the mutated cells and distinguish them from normal cells. The carcinoma cells, however, can escape from the immune surveillance system when it is suppressed． Therefore, restoring suppressed T cell function is an important activity in cancer treatment. Polysaccharides have been reported to enhance immune response. GCP contains a rich content of polysaccharides derived from basidiomycetes which seem to be responsible for enhancement of immune response. In this study, we investigated whether GCP and its fractions could enhance or restore the important T cell function parameters such as cytokine production in the serum of tumor bearing mice.

Methods:

Mouse lung cancer cells 3LL (2x10⁶/mouse) were inoculated s.c. into syngeneic C57 mice (five mice per group) and administered orally with different samples for 4 weeks. The samples were: control = tap water; GCP 0.5g/day, and GCP 1.0/day. After 4 weeks of treatment, the mice were sacrificed the IFN-γin the serum and the IL-12 production by peritoneal macrophage were detected by ELISA assay.

Results：GCP increased cytokine production in tumor-bearing mice (TBM)

As the results show in the figures, GCP dose-dependently enhanced the serum IFN-γlevel and macrophage IL-12 production. The results indicated that GCP induced IFN-γproduction as well as other cytokines production. Thus, GCP acted as an anti-tumor substance including its anti-angiogenesis activity, ability to induce apoptosis, and also for its immune enhancing activity.