title: [Effect of the ethanol extracts of starfish Asterias amurensis on the levels of serum IL-4 and IFN-γ in mice].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of the ethanol extracts of the starfish Asterias amurensis on the levels of serum IL-4 and IFN-γ in mice.
  
  
  METHODS
  The whole bodies of the starfish were chopped and extracted with ethanol. The ethanol extracts were chromatographed on silica gel column. The separating fractions of the ethanol extracts were intraperitoneally injected into mice,  respectively. The levels of serum IL-4 and IFN-γ in mice were detected by ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ethanol extracts from the starfish were separated through silica gel column chromatography to obtain 8 fractions (I-VIII). The high levels of IL-4 and IFN-γ were produced in serum of the mice injected with fractions III and VIII of the ethanol extracts from the starfish Asterias amurensis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fractions III and VIIII separated from the ethanol extracts of the starfish Asterias amurensis can stimulate the mice to produce high lelves of IL-4 and IFN-γ,  which has the characteristic of natural kill T (NKT) cells activator. It is suggests that there is the active substance that can activate NKT cells in the starfish Asterias amurensis.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Medical Molecular Diagnostics, Dongguan, China.
authors.forename: Su-hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xiao-lei
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Ye-feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Zhang-quan
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000431:Ethanol; D005260:Female; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal / Q000379:methods; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood* / Q000187:drug effects; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000097:blood*; D051379:Mice; D013215:Starfish / Q000737:chemistry*; D014020:Tissue Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D014020:Tissue Extracts; D015847:Interleukin-4; D000431:Ethanol; D007371:Interferon-gamma