Acute effect of Chun Do Sun Bup ki-training on natural killer cell subsets and cytotoxic activity

The present study investigated the effect of Korean Chun Do Sun Bup Ki training (traditional psychosomatic intervention) on cellular immunity. The acute change of natural killer cell activity was determined at three times, before (-10 min), immediately after, and two hours after the CDSB Qi training. Assays for cytotoxicity were analyzed by using a non-isotopic method which measures the LDH released from the tumor target cell. NK cell subsets (CD57) were examined by flow cytometry. An increase in NK cell cytotoxicity was observed immediately after CDSB Ki training. NK activity was significantly increased more than 1.6 times compared to the basal value before Ki training (P<0.01). The increased level of NK activity recovered to basal level within two hours. The resting (sedentary) subjects did not show any change of specific lysis for the resting 3 hours. There was no change in the number of NK cell subset after the CDSB Ki training. And no correleation between the NK cytotoxiciy and the NK cell number was found. These data suggest that the CDSB Ki training has an acute stimulatory effect on NK cell activity but has no effect on the fluctuations of phenotypical changes of NK cell subset, exerting a positive immunological effect in man.