SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.55 issue1The effects of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) on the arthropod fauna of wheat fields in ChileCinética de crecimiento in vitro de dos cepas de Trypanosoma cruzi (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) en células miocárdicas de roedores con diferente susceptibilidad author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Journal

Article

Indicators

Related links

Share


Revista de Biología Tropical

On-line version ISSN 0034-7744Print version ISSN 0034-7744

Abstract

CHAVES, Fernando; CHACON, Mauricio; BADILLA, Beatriz  and  AREVALO, Carolina. Effect of Echinacea purpurea (Asteraceae) aqueous extract on antibody response to Bothrops asper venom and immune cell response. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 2007, vol.55, n.1, pp.113-119. ISSN 0034-7744.

The effect of aqueous extract of Echinacea purpurea roots on the murine antibody response to Bothrops asper snake venom in vivo was studied. Three groups were used. Group #1, baseline control, was treated with snake venom plus PBS. Group #2 was treated with snake venom plus sodium alginate as adjuvant (routine method used at Instituto Clodomiro Picado), and group #3 or experimental group, was treated with snake venom plus aqueous extract of E. purpurea root as adjuvant. In all groups, the first inoculation was done with Freund’s complete adjuvant (FCA). By the time of the second bleeding, mice in group #3 showed a remarkable increment in the level of anti-venom antibodies compared with those in groups #1 or #2. In vitro immune cell proliferation as a response to aqueous extract of E. purpurea root was studied using human lymphocytes activated with different lectins (Con A, PHA and PWM). In all cases, increase in percentage of lymphoproliferation was greater when E. purpurea root extract was used in addition to individual lectins. Rev. Biol. Trop. 55 (1): 113-119. Epub 2007 March. 31.

Keywords : Echinacea purpurea; immunostimulatory properties; adjuvant; plant extract; in vitro lymphoproliferation; murine antivenom antibodies.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )

 

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License