• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.52-62
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• 2002

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Bee Venom on NO, $H_2O_2$ expression induced by LPS in Raw 264.7 cells as a murine marcrophage cell line and on IL-1 expression induced by LPS in D10S cells. Methods : The expression of NO was measured by MTT Assay and IL-1 by MTS Assay. The expression of $H_2O_2$ was measured as ROS level within the cell using by FACS analysis. The non-toxic concentration(from $0.1\;{\mu}g/ml\;to\;5\;{\mu}g/ml$) of Bee Venom was determined by MTT Assay. Results : 1. Bee Venom inhibited the NO expression. The effective concentration of Bee Venom was $5\;{\mu}g/ml$ after 3 hours, 1 and $5\;{\mu}g/ml$ after 1 day and 2 days. The all concentration of Bee Venom inhibited the NO expression after 6, 12 hours and 3 days. 2. Bee Venom inhibited the $H_2O_2$ expression in a dose-dependent manner compared to the control. 3. Bee Venom could not significantly inhibit the IL-1 expression.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.63-77
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• 2009

Objectives : In this study, an essential oil fragrance from Danggwi was administrated into the neural stem cell and the effect of the essential oil on the differentiation and proliferation of the neural stem cells were observed. Methods : The establishment of the neural stem cell was identified via Nestin, DAPI dye. An essential oil fragrance from Danggwi was administrated with a proved optimum level for the survival of the cell through MTT assay. Also, according to the analysis of Western blot, the essential oil fragrance from Danggwi promotes the phosphorylating of Akt, Erk, ERM protein. Results : MTT assay showed increased in GFAP. The result indicates that the differentiation to astrocyte is promoted. The phosphorylation levels of ERM, Erk and Akt were increased at 60 min after addition of 5 ug/ml of essential oil fragrance from Danggwi and sustained to 48 hours. These imply that essential oil fragrance from Danggwi may induce the survival and the proliferation of the differentiated cells. Conclusions : These results suggest that the essential oil fragrance from Danggwi can be effective for the in vivo study of degenerative neuronal disease using neural stem cell.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.169-179
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• 2010

The pistil of nelumbo nucifera (PNN) is used in the treatment of nocturnal pollution, hematemesis, epistaxis, metrorrhagia and diarrhoea in traditional medicine. The present study was examined to evaluate the effects of PNN on the production of pro-inflammatory mediators in vitro. After the treatment of PNN, cell viability was measured by MTT assay, nitric oxide (NO) production was monitored by measuring the nitrite content in culture medium. The protein bands were determined by immunoblot analysis and levels of cytokines were analyzed by sandwich immunoassays. In the MTT assay, the doses of PNN extract (0.03, 0.10 mg/ml) had no significant cytotoxicity. The increases of NO production and inducible nitric oxide synthase expression were detected in lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-activated Raw 264.7 cells compared with control, in contrast, these increases were significantly attenuated by pre-treatment with PNN. In cytokine assay, the massive pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor-$\alpha$, interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 were induced in LPS-activated Raw 264.7 cells, but pre-treatment of Raw 264.7 cells with PNN caused inhibition (TNF-$\alpha$=14.17%, IL-$1{\beta}$=107.43%, IL-6=46.27%) the production of cytokines by LPS. In addition, PNN reduced prostaglandin E2 productions in a dose-dependent manner (0.03mg/ml=37.52%, 0.10 mg/ml=83.77%) as a consequence of the inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 expression. Taken together, our data indicates that PNN can regulate the inflammatory response in macrophage cells activated by Gram-negative infection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.273-276
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• 2014

Ellagic acid has been shown to inhibit tumor cell growth. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, our aim was to investigate whether ellagic acid inhibits the proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells via regulation of the TGF-${\beta}$/Smad3 signaling pathway. MCF-7 breast cancer cells were transfected with pEGFP-C3 or pEGFP-C3/Smad3 plasmids, and treated with ellagic acid alone or in combination with SIS3, a specific inhibitor of Smad3 phosphorylation. Cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay and the cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. Moreover, gene expression was detected by RT-PCR, real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. The MTT assay showed that SIS3 attenuated the inhibitory activity of ellagic acid on the proliferation of MCF-7 cells. Flow cytometry revealed that ellagic acid induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest which was mitigated by SIS3. Moreover, SIS3 reversed the effects of ellagic acid on the expression of downstream targets of the TGF-${\beta}$/Smad3 pathway. In conclusion, ellagic acid leads to decreased phosphorylation of RB proteins mainly through modulation of the TGF-${\beta}$/Smad3 pathway, and thereby inhibits the proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2010

DEPs (diesel exhaust particles) like any other particles can be also inhaled into lung to participate in a damaging reaction to the organ. Possible damages might be apoptosis and inflammatory responses to the cells in respiratory track. The aim of this study was cytotoxicity evaluation of DEPs from five in-use diesel vehicles using a murine macrophage cell (RAW 254.7). We found that most DEPs have a considerable cytotoxicity compared to the control and SRM 2975. When measured by MTT assay and extents of apoptosis, DEPs of two highmileage vehicles had higher toxicity than those of the other three low-mileage vehicles tested. Although mRNA expression level of TNF-${\alpha$ somewhat explains the trend of cytotoxicity and apoptosis, that of IL-1$\beta$ did not. Correlation studies among the extents of MTT assay, apoptosis, and TNF-$\alpha$ expression showed that the extents between apoptosis and TNF-$\alpha$ expression was most highly correlated (r=0.96). These results suggest that cytotoxicity of various DEPs could be compared easily by measuring the extent of apoptosis or TNF-$\alpha$ expression by DEPs.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1434-1442
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• 2019

We conducted this study to investigate anti-inflammatory possibilities of applying cosmetic material about extracts from red ginseng. For this we carried out biological active evaluation about anti-inflammatory by using extracts of red ginseng. In order to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of the samples in macrophages (RAW 264.7 cells), MTT assay was used to evaluate the toxicity of red ginseng extracts and the inhibitory activity of nitric oxide production and the expression levels of inflammation-related proteins and genes. The inhibitory activity of nitric oxide in the LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells was 71.2% at 25 ㎍/ml concentration and western blot analysis showed that the expression of iNOS and COX-2 protein decreased in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that extracts from red ginseng may have value as the potential cosmetic materials.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.26-39
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• 2006

Objective : The effect of water extract of Chungjogupae-tang (CJGPT) was investigated on the growth of human lung carcinoma A549 cells. Methods : MTT assay and fluorescent microscope performed to compare and examine the efficacy of CJGPT treatment on the cytostaticity of lung cancer cells in proportion to time and doses, and DAPI staining and Western blot analysis were used to examine their effect on apoptosis. In addition the quantitative RT-PCR was used to examine to lung cancer cells growth and Progtaglandin E2 and Telomerase activity were measured Results : Exposure of A549 cells to CJGPT resulted in the growth inhibition and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner as measured by MTT assay and fluorescent microscope. The antiuoliferative effect by CJGPT treatment in A549 cells was associated with morphological changes such as membrane shrinking and cell rounding up. CJGPT treatment resulted in an up-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(WAF1/CIPl) in a p53-independent fashion. We found that CJGPT treatment decreased the levels of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthease (iNOS) expression without significant changes in the expression of COX-1, which was correlated with a decrease in protaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis. CJGPT treatment also inhibited the levels of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and telomerase-associated protein (TEP)-1 mRNA expression, however the activity of telomerase was slightly increased by CJGPT treatment. Conclusion : These findings suggested that CJGPT-induced inhibition of human lung carcinoma A549 cell growth was connected with the induction of apoptotic cell death and the results provided important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of CJGPT.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.454-463
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• 2017

Ganoderma lucidum has been traditionally used as a medicine for treatment of bronchitis, arthritis, and high blood pressure, and it has been reported to display many biological activities including anticancer and immune activities. Since mushroom mycelium is known to have excellent biological activities together with mushroom fruiting body, studies on biological activities of mushroom mycelium have been actively conducted. Thus, the present study compared the biological activities before and after the cultivation of Ganoderma lucidum mycelium on Atractylodes rhizoma. When the radical scavenging activity was assessed by the DPPH assay, ARGL (ethanol extract of Atractylodes rhizoma mycelium fermented with Ganoderma lucidum) showed radical scavenging activity of 5.58~82.56% at concentrations of $10{\sim}500{\mu}g/assay$, while AR (ethanol extract of Atractylodes rhizoma) showed radical scavenging activity of 5.27~72.08% at the same concentrations. When measured by using the ABTS assay, ARGL showed higher radical scavenging activity than AR, which was consistent with the result obtained by the DPPH assay. In the MTT assay, the cytotoxicity of ARGL against all cell lines was higher than that of AR. In particular, the cytotoxicities of AR and ARGL against Hep3B at a concentration of $400{\mu}g/assay$ were 71.81% and 86.40%, respectively. In addition, the result obtained by the SRB assay was consistent with the result obtained by the MTT assay. According to the results mentioned above, there is a high probability that medicinal herb cultures using mycelium can be used as sources of functional foods since the cytotoxicities against cancer cells and antioxidant activities increased when the mycelium was fermented with Atractylodes rhizoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7043-7048
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• 2014

Inhibition of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) leads to inappropriate processing of proteins involved in DNA damage repair pathways after DNA damage and may enhance tumor cell radio- and chemotherapy sensitivity. To investigate the potentiation of antitumor efficacy of lidamycin (LDM), an enediyne agent by the Hsp90 inhibitorgeldanamycin (GDM), and possible mechanisms, we have determined effects on ovarian cancer SKOV-3, hepatoma Bel-7402 and HepG2 cells by MTT assay, apoptosis assay, and cell cycle analysis. DNA damage was investigated with H2AX C-terminal phosphorylation (${\gamma}H2AX$) assays. We found that GDM synergistically sensitized SKOV-3 and Bel-7402 cells to the enediyne LDM, and this was accompanied by increased apoptosis. GDM pretreatment resulted in a greater LDM-induced DNA damage and reduced DNA repair as compared with LDM alone. However, in HepG2 cells GDM did not show significant sensitizing effects both in MTT assay and in DNA damage repair. Abrogation of LDM-induced $G_2/M$ arrest by GDM was found in SKOV-3 but not in HepG2 cells. Furthermore, the expression of ATM, related to DNA damage repair responses, was also decreased by GDM in SKOV-3 and Bel-7402 cells but not in HepG2 cells. These results demonstrate that Hsp90 inhibitors may potentiate the antitumor efficacy of LDM, possibly by reducing the repair of LDM-induced DNA damage.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.147-154
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• 2010

Purpose: To investigate the radiosensitizing effect of the selective epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor nimotuzumab in human colorectal cancer cell lines. Materials and Methods: Four human colorectal cancer cell lines, HCT-8, LoVo, WiDr, and HCT-116 were treated with nimotuzumab and/or radiation. The effects on cell proliferation, viability, and cell cycle progression were measured by MTT, clonogenic survival assay, flow cytometry, and Western blot. Results: An immunoblot analysis revealed that EGFR phosphorylation was inhibited by nimotuzumab in colorectal cancer cell lines. Under these experimental conditions, pre-treatment with nimotuzumab increased radiosensitivity of colorectal cancer cell lines, except for cell line HCT-116. However, cell proliferation or cell cycle progression was not affected by the addition of nimotuzumab, irrespective of irradiation. Conclusion: Nimotuzumab enhanced the radiosensitivity of colorectal cancer cells in vitro by inhibiting EGFR-mediated cell survival signaling. This study provided a rationale for the clinical application of the selective EGFR inhibitor, nimotuzumab in combination with radiation in colorectal cancer cells.