Effect of some Kampo medicines, including Tokaku-joki-to (Tao-He-Cheng-Qi-Tang), on IgE-mediated triphasic skin reaction in passively sensitized mice

Previous studies have reported that the mice passively sensitized with anti-DNP IgE antibody exhibited IgE-mediated biphasic cutaneous reaction with an immediate phase response (IPR) at 1 h and a late phase response (LPR) at 24 h after the challenge of DNFB (dinitrofluorobenzene). We recently found that the third phase inflammatory response with intense and persisting infiltration of eosinophils, named very late phase response (vLPR), was induced following IPR and LPR in response to DNFB in passively sensitized mice, and that the peak response of vLPR was on the 8th day after the challenge. The inhibitory effect of Kampo medicines on the triphasic cutaneous inflammatory reaction was divided into several groups in terms of their inhibition rate of ear swelling. Among the formulations, Tokaku-joki-to (Tao-He-Cheng-Qi-Tang) was effective at inhibiting IPR, LPR and vLPR (+/+/+ group) and scratching behavior in IPR. The Inhibitory effect of Tokaku-joki--to on triphasic cutaneous reaction primarily depends on its composed crude drugs, Glycyrrhizae Radix and Cinnamomi Cortex. These findings indicate that Tokaku-joki-to formulation is usefull for the inhibition of cutaneous inflammatory diseases.