[The prophylactic effect of thymosin alpha 1 on the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Thymosin Alpha-1 in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To investigate the prophylactic effect of thymosin alpha 1 and its mechanism on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 42 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Eighty patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were divided into two groups.

All patients were followed for 6 months, and were assessed the number and days of patients with acute exacerbation at 3 and 6 months.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Thymosin Alpha-1 and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The methods mention a period of 6 months.

In two groups, before treatment and 3 and 6 months after treatment, the pulmonary function tests were measured, and the blood samples were collected for the measurement of the blood IgA, IgG, IgM, CD3, CD4 and CD8 levels.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adjuvants, Immunologic, CD3 Complex, CD4 Antigens, CD4-CD8 Ratio, CD8 Antigens, Immunoglobulin A and Immunoglobulin G.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Thymosin Alpha-1 in 42 patients over 6 months.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2008 (Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition), a journal based in China.

More context: the Thymosin Alpha-1 compound page, all human trials.