Abstract: This study was designed to investigate the effect of Rhizoma Drynariae Flavonoids (RDF) on regulation of immune functions in cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppressive mice.Cyclophosphamide (CTX) was administrated (ip) to mice to establish immunosuppression model.The blood cells were counted by hematology analyzer and the level of IL-2,TNF-α,IFN-γ were counted by ELISA.T-lymphocyte subsets CD4+,CD8+ in peripheral blood were measured by FACS,the index of lymphocyte proliferation capacity was detected by MTT,the relative mRNA expression of transcription factor T-box-containing protein (T-bet),and GATA binding protein (GATA-3) in the spleen tissues were detected by RT-PCR.The indexs of thymus and spleen,the phagocytosis ability of macrophage,lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and acid phosphatase (ACP) in spleen tissues,delayed type hypersensitivity and hemolysin were measured.The results showed that,compared with model group,RDF significantly increased the activities of the thymus and spleen indexs,clearance index K and phagocytic index α,WBC,RBC,HGB and LYNPH%,IL-2,TNF-α,IFN-γ,LDH,ACP,ConA-induced T- lymphocyte proliferation capacity,hemolysin and ear swellings,CD4+, CD4+/CD8+ and T-bet mRNA relative expression (P<0.05).In addition,RDF markedly decreased the level of CD8+ and GATA-3 mRNA expression (P<0.05).Hence,it was concluded that,RDF can regulate the non-specific immunity,humoral and cellular immune functions of CTX-induced immunosuppressive mice,and it had a positive regulatory role of immune function in mice.

Key words: Rhizoma Drynariae Flavonoids, immunosuppression, non-specific immune, humoral immune, cellular immune