• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1251-1256
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• 2003

To determine the effect of Zibachunggan-tang(ZCT) on the process of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nuclear factor-kBp65 (NF-kBp65) activation, and LPS-induced expression of pro-inflammatory proteins including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), in HepG2 cell. Immunoblot analysis showed that the level of nucleic NF-kBp65 was rapidly up-regulated and cytosolic inhibitory I-kBα was down-regulated by LPS challenge. While ZCT inhibited an increase of NF-kBp65 and degradation of I-kBα in HepG2 cell. Beside LPS-induced expression of a group of genes, such as TNF-α, inducible iNOS and COX-2, are repressed by ZCT. It may be concluded that ZCT attenuates the progress of LPS-induced inflammation by reduction of NF-kBp65 activation. The ZCT would be useful as a therapeutic agent for endotoxin-induced liver disease.