%0 Journal Article
%T Effects of Litchi chinensis fruit isolates on prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide production in J774 murine macrophage cells
%A Yang Zhou
%A Hong Wang
%A Ruili Yang
%A Hui Huang
%A Yuanming Sun
%A Yudong Shen
%A Hongtao Lei
%A Hong Gao
%J BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6882-12-12
%X In the current study, the effects of isolates of litchi on prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) production in J774 murine macrophage cells were investigated.The AcOEt extract (EAE) of litchi was found effective on stimulating PGE2 production, and three compounds, benzyl alcohol, hydrobenzoin and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfurolaldehyde (5-HMF), were isolated and identified from the EAE. Benzyl alcohol caused markedly increase in PGE2 and NO production, compared with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as positive control, and in a dose-dependent manner. Hydrobenzoin and 5-HMF were found in litchi for the first time, and both of them stimulated PGE2 and NO production moderately in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, regulation of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression and NF-¦ĘB (p50) activation might be involved in mechanism of the stimulative process.The study showed, some short molecular compounds in litchi play inflammatory effects on human.Prostaglandin E2 is the major prostaglandin produced by macrophage cells, which is derived from 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids synthesized in a wide range of tissue types. In humans, PGE2 is a well-known pro-inflammatory mediator involved in diverse functions, including heat releasing, strengthening the permeability of blood vessel, accelerating the release of lysozyme, interferon, erythrogenin, colony stimulating factor and accelerating chemotaxis of leucocyte et al. [1]. The key regulatory enzyme of PGE2 biosynthesis is cyclooxygenase, and cyclooxygenase-2 is the inducible form of this enzyme and mediates many of the inflammatory and inducible effects. It is therefore worth screening the effect of foods on COX-2 expression and PGE2 formation which can provide useful information on inflammatory conditions [2].Nitric oxide is known to play an important role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. NO is produced by nitric oxide synthase, and the inducible isoform (iNOS) is known to be
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/12