Qingkailing injection alleviates experimental autoimmune uveitis in rats via inhibiting Th1 and Th17 effector cells

Qingkailing injection is a well-known composite formula of traditional Chinese medicine and is commonly used in clinical practice, which could offer immunomodulatory effect from our clinical experience on uveitis treatment by Qingkailing. We did the experiment in order to investigate the curative effect and mechanism of Qingkailing injection to rat experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU). EAU was induced in Lewis rats by immunization IRBP1177-1191 in complete Freund's adjuvant in multi-point. We found that Qingkailing injection can alleviate autoimmune uveitis in rats, inhibit the differentiation toward Th1 and Th17 effector cells and the relevant cytokines secretion. The therapeutic effect may also be regulated through increased secretion of interleukin (IL)-10.