The feature of asthma are airway inflammation (AI), reversible airway obstruction, and an increased sensitivity to bronchoconstricting agents, elevated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), excess production of Th2 cytokines, and eosinophil accumulation in the lungs. This study was performed to investigate if oral administration of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi water extracts (SBG) have the antiasthmatic potential for the treatment of asthma. Asthmatic HI and AHR were induced by systemic sensitization to ovalbumin (OVA) with intratracheal instillation with 0.1 mg/mL of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) suspension once a week for 10 weeks in BALB/c mice. SBG was orally administered with the concentraion of 200 mg/kg 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Long-term SBG treatment suppressed the eosinophil infiltration into airways from blood, the asthmatic AI and AHR by attenuating the production of cytokine IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, histamine and OVA-specific IgE. Our data suggest that SBG has inhibitory effects on AI and AHR in a mouse model of asthma, may act as a potential Th2 cytokine antagonist, and may have a therapeutic effect on allergic asthma.

This study investigates the relationship between Asian dust and asthma disease in Seoul, using data of Asian dust occurrences and the number of treatments for asthma between 2005 and 2008. The data include the number of treatments for asthma on the basic day paired with the average number of treatments for asthma on the compared days. The compared day is defined by the day of no Asian dust in same month and day of the week as the basic day, when Asian dust occurs. Also, the basic day is expanded to the day after three days from the day of Asian dust. The paired two sample t-test for the number of treatments for asthma on the basic day and the compared days revealed that the Asian dust occurrences are correlated with the asthma disease. The number of treatments for asthma is significantly increased on the one and two days after Asian dust occurs. On the other hand, there's no significant difference in the number of treatments for asthma between the days of Asian dust occurrence and the days of no Asian dust, which implies that people usually try not to go out when Asian dust occurs.

항산화물에 의한 천식 억제 효과를 확인하기 위하여 항산화정도를 알아볼 수 있는 DPPH, FRAP, hydroxyl radical 소거활성 실험을 high throughput-compatible chemical assay로 디자인하여 해바라기씨 추출물에 적용하여 보았다. 해바라기씨 추출물의 용매에 따른 항산화 효과 중 에 의한 산화스트레스에 의한 세포사멸을 DW추출물에서 강한 억제능력을 보였다. 이를 이용하여 마우스를 이용한 천식 동물모델에 적용

천식과 관련하여 산화스트레스 (Oxidant stress)는 그 발병요인 중의 하나로 알려져 있다. 이에 본 연구는 농산물과 한약재를 이용하여 항산화 물질을 찾고자 하였으며, 시간과 비용의 단축을 위하여 HTS인 throughput screening)을 이용을 하였다. 항산화 실험과 관련하여서 DPPH(1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl), FRAP(ferric ion reducing antioxidant power), HO(h