Effects of "moxibustion serum" on proliferation and phenotypes of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.

Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were cultured with "moxibustion serum" (MS), and the results were examined by flow cytometry. The results indicated that MS could enhance the proliferation of TIL, accelerate it to reach the exponential growth phase, and assist recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL-2) to enhance successively the percentage of CD3+ positive cells, maintain the number of CD4+ positive T cells, promote greatly the percentage of CD8+ positive T cells among TILs, and reverse the CD4+/CD8+ ratio. Such cooperative effects rely on relative specificity of acupoints. It is suggested that MS is beneficial to the growth of TIL both in the aspects of proliferation and phenotypes.