1. Name of the centre

The Institute has got fund from the 'Korea Science And Engineering Foundation' in September 2000 as a new government research project, which is a 3-year program. The title of this project is 'Effects of acupuncture on alterations of immune responses evoked by hypothalamus lesions', and the content of this research plan is as follows;

A series of report demonstrated that the occurrence of the stress-associated diseases has consistently increased in recent decades. It also reported that the stress has a close relationship with the decrement of immune response to foreign antigens. There is no doubt that the neuronal system and the immune system do not exist separately, rather cooperate each other to sustain the homeostasis of human body. Recently several reports strongly suggested that the acupuncture therapy induces the analgesia through the neuronal pathway and it also modulates the immune responses.

The reduced immune responses by stress are believed to be as a result of cooperative interactions between the hypothalamus, pituitary grand and adrenal grand(H-P-A axis). Especially hypothalamus is the key element to connect the neuronal system with the immune system. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the selective destruction of the nucleus in the hypothalamus induces turbulence in immune and endocrine homeostasis. The acupuncture stimuli of natural killer cells(NK cell) and influence of the balance between CD4/CD8 T lymphocytes. However, there is neuro-immune system. Therefore, this study focus on the evaluating the acupuncture effects on the immune system the valuable information about the mechanisms of acupuncture therapy on the immune modulation.

This study will be performed as described previously. Briefly, the hypothalamic lesion will be made by the electric conduction with concentric bipolar electrode on the desired area in the Sprague-Dawley rats brain. After the surgery, the control analgesia effect by acupuncture will be tested by tail flick test and the cytokines(IL-1,IL_2,IL-6,TNF-α), ACTH and corticosterone will be determined by ELISA assay and radioimmuno assay. In order to evaluate the brain cytokines involved in acupuncture effect on the immune modulation, the level of messenger RNA of specific cytokine are determined by RT-PCR using the total RNA extracted from the hypothalamus. Based on the above experiments, specific ctyokine deficient knock out mouse will be utilized to confirm the previous results. Furthermore, the exact locations and relevant cytokines involved in acupuncture effects will be further accessed by blocking the expression of selective cytokines using microinjection of antisense oligonucleotide into the sub-area in the hypothalamus.

This study will not only support a valuable information to understand the mechanisms involved in acupuncture effect on the immune responses, but also provide the reasonable explanations to the patients about utilizing acupuncture therapy on the stress associated diseases.

Title : Studies of therapeutic modalities and new drugs on the east-west medicine
Primary Investigator : Sabina Lim, OMD. PhD.
Department of Meridian and Accupoint, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University

This team is composed of 8 groups : ① rheumatoid arthritis(RA) with venom acupuncture research group, ② inflammation treatment salve research group, ③ poststroke central pain research group, ④ arthritis treatment research group, ⑤ pain treatment with acupuncture research group, ⑥ pain-controlling drug developing research group, ⑦ neuropathic pain model developing group, ⑧ drug for stoke treatment group. All groups were consisted with medical doctors, oriental medical doctors, research associates, and technicians too.

Title : The International Conference in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the foundation of Kyung Hee University Medical Center and of the 20th anniversary of the International Day of Peace
Main Theme : The Cooperation of East-West Medicine in the 21st Century
Date : October 5 - October 6, 2001 (2 days)
Venue : General Lecture Building, Kyung Hee University
Speaker: 30 - 40 scholars (about 15 foreign speakers)
Budget : ￦300,000,000 (US$240,000)
Session : East-West Medicine, Medicine, Oriental Medicine, Dental Medicine,
Pharmacy, Nursing Science