Anti-inflammatory Effects of Gastrodia elata Extract in Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated BV-2 Microglia Cell

Gastrodia elata Blume is used for a variety of purposes including treatment of inflammation in the Korean medicine. The present study investigated whether the G. elata extracts have the anti-inflammatory effect on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-stimulated BV-2 microglia cells. G. elata extracts showed an anti-inflammatory effects in the morphological and nitric oxide(NO) analysis, especially in hexane extract. So we investigated the hexane extract from G. elata in the following experiments. Hexane extract significantly inhibited the secretion of NO with protein level of inducible nitric oxide synthase in LPS-stimulated BV2 microglia cells. Hexane extract also inhibited LPS-stimulated inflammatory responses involving the degradation of cytosolic inhibitory(I)-${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and the translocation of nuclear factor(NF)-${\kappa}Bp65$ to nucleus in LPS-stimulated BV-2 microglia cells by morphological analysis. Western blot analyse confirmed that I-${\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and NF-${\kappa}Bp65$ showed a similar pattern as morphological analysis. Our results suggest that G. elata extracts, especially hexane extract, may act as a therapeutic agent for inflammatory disease in the central nervous system through a selective regulation of NO production and NF-${\kappa}B$ activation.