Currently, > 30 different ginsenosides have been isolated and characterized from P. ginseng, and these ginsenosides are known to have different pharmacologic effects [19]. However, the comparative studies of WG and RG on various diseases have not been sufficiently investigated. Asthma is a serious, worldwide public health problem that affects all ages. It is an inflammatory disease of the airways that can be exacerbated by numerous extrinsic factors, such as continuous exposure to allergens [7]. However, the pathophysiological mechanism of asthma

is unclear despite the increasing prevalence of this disease. Furthermore, current therapies fail to provide an adequate therapeutic solution. Currently, corticosteroids are the drugs most commonly used to control airway AZD6244 order inflammation, however, corticosteroid therapy has important adverse effects, and some selleck products patients are completely corticoid resistant or fail to show clinical improvement after high dose glucocorticoids treatment [20]. Therefore, the development of safer, more effective antiasthmatic drugs is required, and

evaluation of the potential bioactivities of new compounds with unique mechanisms of action remains an important topic of research [20]. Consequently, efforts should be made to identify new antiasthmatic remedies, preferably of natural origin, to mitigate the effects of asthma. Kim and Yang [12] reported that P. ginseng treatment restores the expression of several genes including EMBP, Muc5ac, and CD40, and the mRNA and protein levels of IL-1β, IL-4, IL-5, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α,

but no description was provided of inflammatory cell counts and IgE production in asthmatic mice, which probably underlie the mechanism of asthma. Furthermore, the effects of ginseng on asthma have received little attention. For this reason, we examined and compared the effects of WG and RG in an asthmatic mouse model. Eosinophils are important immune cells and contribute to the development of allergic and asthmatic inflammation, to the infiltration of eosinophils into airways, and the release of their contents has been linked to symptom severity in asthma [21]. In the present study, eosinophils were absent in the BALF of the naïve group of mice and markedly increased in the PBS-treated control group (Fig. 3). Other inflammatory PRKD3 cells were also significantly up-regulated when asthma was induced. WG or RG administration effectively suppressed eosinophil infiltration into lung bronchioles. Fig. 7 shows the marked infiltrations of inflammatory cells, including eosinophils, neutrophils, and lymphocytes, observed in connective tissues not only around large vessels and airways but also around small vessels and airways in the control group. Although alveolar spaces were washed once with PBS to obtain BALF, many infiltrated inflammatory cells remained. However, in the WG and RG groups, inflammatory cell infiltrations were much reduced as compared with the control group.