Effect of Medicinal Plants on Cytokine-induced Apoptosis in Thyroid Cells

Apoptosis plays an important role in autoimmune chronic (Hashimoto's) thyroiditis, a disorder that often results in hypothyroidism. The goal of this study was to induce apoptosis by the combination of inflammatory cytokines, interferon $(IFN)-{\gamma}$ and tumor necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$, and to investigate a potential role of medicinal plants in the thyroid follicular cells (FRTL) in vitro. The apoptosis was evaluated by cellular viability, DNA fragmentation, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxy-UTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Extract of Gamgung-tang (GGT, Glycyrrhizae Radix, black beans, Angelicae Radix, and Cnidii Rhizoma) $(0.3{\sim}9.0mg/ml)$ was shown to maintain the viability of cells treated with $IFN-{\gamma}(100U/ml)$ and $TNF-{\alpha}$ (0.5 ng/ml). FRTL cells were found to undergo DNA fragmentation with the inflammatory cytokines. The extract of GGT inhibited DNA fragmentation in dose-dependent manner. The cells with TUNEL-positive nuclei were detected with $IFN-{\gamma}$ and $TNF-{\alpha}$ treatment. The number of TUNEL-positive cells decreased with the treatment of extract of GGT. These results indicate that medicinal plants inhibit the occurrence of apoptosis in thyroid follicular cells, therefore, may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of autoimmune chronic thyroiditis.

생약혼합물이 사이토카인에 의한 갑상선세포의 Apoptosis에 미치는 영향