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The development of immunology - teaching and science in the Department of Animal Physiology ; past and present.

We described the period starting from the middle sixties of the last century as very important time in the history of the development of immunological research and teching of immunology in the Department of Animal Physiology (DAP), Faculty of Science, at the University of Zagreb, when the late Professor Borislav Nakić took a leading part in both research and teaching of immunology in Croatia (CIS), as well as in the organization of the Croatian Immunological Society. The past and present time has been presented and the most important scientific work of some members of CIS from DAP was specified. In addition here we shortly describe present scientific achievement, of the researchers presently working in DAP, in of field tumour chemoprevention and new approch to chemoimmunotherapy and radioprotection. Chemoprevention of tumor with natural components, including honey bee products, especially propolis and propolis related polyphenolic/flavonoid compounds has recently drawn attention as a strong antitumor approach to be used. Flavonoids are known to affect proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis in cancer cells and may play an important role in cancer chemoprevention. Chemoprevention includes: inhibition, delay or reverse the process of carcinogenesis and/or inhibition of proliferation of already established tumor cell. Chemoprevention via nontoxic agents could be one approach for decreasing the incidence of cancer and its growth. Many naturally occurring agents have shown chemopreventive potential in a variety of bioassay systems and animal models. In the present study, results clearly demonstrated that combination of chemotherapeutic agents with polyphenolic/flavonoid components found in propolis, vegetables, fruits, and plant-derived beverages, having no side effects in animals, could reduce the dose of chemotherapeutic agents and improve anticancer activities in different type of murine tumours such as mammary carcinoma, and Echrlich ascites tumour. Their chemopreventive activity in animal models and cell cultures are likely to be the result of their ability to inhibit DNA synthesis in tumour cells, their capability to induce apoptosis of tumour cells, and their property to activate macrophage to produce factors capable of regulating the function of B-, T- and NK-cells, respectively. These findings suggest that propolis preparation and related flavonoids may enhance anticancer efficacy of chemotherapeutics and reduce cytotoxicity to immunocompetent cells. Pretreatment with flavonoids both in vitro and in vivo sensitizes cancer cell to growth inhibition and apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic agents. It is likely that flavonoids by inhibition of P-gp activity increase the accumulation of chemotherapeutic in P-gp expressing cancer cells render accumulation of chemotherapeutic in cancer cell which results in altered absorption/bioavailability of these drugs after coadministration of flavonoids with cytostatic drug. These findings suggest that bee products and their polyphenolic flavonoid components may serve as a potent adjunct to chemotherapy in the treatment of cancers. We also described radioprotective effects of propolis and its flavonoids. However, further in-depth studies including clinical trials are needed to fully evaluate the value of flavonoids in combination with chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of human cancers.

History of the Department of Animal Physiology; Tissue typisation; Immunology research; Chemoprevention

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