Effects of PSK on Interleukin‐2 Production by Peripheral Lymphocytes of Patients with Advanced Ovarian Carcinoma during Chemotherapy

Abstract

The effects of PSK on OKT 4/OKT 8 cell ratio, interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) production and expression of IL‐2 receptor were examined in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from patients with advanced ovarian cancer during the course of chemotherapy. Preoperative levels of OKT 4/OKT 8 cell ratio and IL‐2 production in PBL from patients with advanced ovarian cancer were significantly lower than those in cases of benign ovarian tumor. However, the expression of IL‐2 receptor did not show any significant difference between ovarian cancer and benign ovarian tumor patients. When a combination chemotherapy of cisplatin, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide was given, the OKT 4/OKT 8 cell ratio was significantly increased with a significant decrease of the absolute number of the OKT 8 cell subset, while the expression of IL‐2 receptor and the absolute number of the OKT 4 cell subset remained unchanged. In contrast, the IL‐2 production was markedly depressed after the first course of chemotherapy. When PSK was combined with combination chemotherapy, the degree of inhibition of IL‐2 production was reduced (though the effect was not statistically significant). If treatment with PSK was initiated after completion of combination chemotherapy, in addition to a significant elevation of OKT 4/OKT 8 cell ratio the depressed IL‐2 production was restored to benign control levels. On the other hand, the expression of IL‐2 receptor remained unchanged even if PSK was given after completion of chemotherapy.

In vitro immunomodulating effect of protein-bound polysaccharide, PSK on peripheral blood, regional nodes, and spleen lymphocytes in patients with gastric cancer

“…The analysis of the effect of PSK administration on the subpopulations of the cell phenotypes demonstrated that PSK administration increases the proportion of IL-2 receptor + cells, which is consistent with the results of a previous report [9]. There are two possible mechanisms for this increase in the proportion of IL-2 receptor + cells; one is that the production of IL-2 receptors is stimulated by the administration of PSK, and the other is that IL-2 receptor + cells proliferate after PSK stimulation.…”

“…It has also been reported that intraperitoneally or orally administered PSK induces cytotoxic peritoneal exudate cells and augments the NK cell activity of splenocytes in mice [2,4,21,23]. Other reports have indicated that the administration of PSK increases the production of IFN and IL-2 by lymphocytes, which may explain the augmenting effect of PSK on the cytotoxicity of lymphocytes [9,10]. Other mechanisms must also be responsible.…”

Antitumour activity of Ganoderma lucidum, an edible mushroom, on intraperitoneally implanted lewis lung carcinoma in synergenic mice

“…One is a protein-bound polysaccharide (PSK or Crestin) from the mycelium of Coriofus uersicolor (Hosokawa et a f . , 1986) which has already been used clinically (Kikuchi et al, 1988) in Japan and another is a glucan (named Lentinan) from the fruit bodies of Lentinus edodes (Chihara et al, 1970;Maeda et al, 1988;Baba et al, 1986). Ohmori et al (1986) reported that these antitumour polysaccharides were markedly effective against allogeneic tumours, however, they were scarcely effective against syngeneic tumours.…”

Cimetidine: An Immunomodulator

“…Treatment with cimetidine significantly increased the helper:suppressor ratios but IL-2 receptors remained unchanged. 29 CIMETIDINE IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER Impaired cell-mediated immune response is commonly seen in patients suffering from a variety of malignancies. 17 • 3O Richtsmeier and Eisele studied the effect of cimetidine on ten untreated patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.…”