To understand the mechanism of the outgoing qi on immune function, we have investigated whether the surface antigens on human peripheral lymphocyte were influenced by the outgoing qi in vitro. 13 vein blood samples were taken from the healthy donors, heparinized, and each of them was divided into two parts, one begin treated with outgoing qi and the other serving as control. The blood samples with outgoing qi treating group were treated by Master Zhang Xiangyu (5 cases) and Xiao Xinzhu (8 cases) respectively. The lymphocytes of both outgoing qi treating and control groups were then separated with Ficoll-Hypaque method. The percentage of Tac+, DQ+, DR+, T3+ and SmIg+ cells were measured in both groups at same time. The Tac+, DQ+, DR+ and T3 antigens of lymphocyte were detected with the corresponding McAbs and fluorescent rabit-anti-mouse IgG and IgM antibodies by direct immunofluorescence method. The results showed that the percentages of Tac+, DQ+, DR+, cells were 4.64±1.93, 33.00±6.24 and 37.30±9.48 in outgoing qi treating group, and 3.03±1.49, 22.77±6.43 and 30.70±9.48 in control group respectively. All of the three parameters in outgoing qi treating group were obviously higher than those in control group (p 0.01, p 0.01 and p 0.05 ). The results strongly suggest that the outgoing qi has possible activating effect on the lymphocyte and that may be one of the ways by which the outgoing qi influence immune response. However, there were no statistically differences in the percentages of SmIg+ and T3+ cells between the outgoing qi treating group and control group (both p 0.05). Since SmIg+ and T3+ cells represent B and T lymphocytes respectively, it is supposed that the outgoing qi has no obvious influence on the number or ratio of T and B cells in our experimental condition.

The effect of the outgoing qi on the expression of surface antigens on human peripheral lymphocyte