Effects of alpha-mangostin on the expression of anti-inflammatory genes in U937 cells

• Published in: Chinese medicine Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 19
• Main Authors: Liu, Szu-Hsiu, Lee, Lain-Tze, Hu, Nai-Yun, Huange, Kuo-Kuei, Shih, Ying-Chu, Munekazu, Iinuma, Li, Jen-Ming, Chou, Ting-Yu, Wang, Wei-Hsin, Chen, Ting-Shou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 24.08.2012; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Anti-inflammatory diet; Anti-inflammatory drugs; Antioxidants; Antiviral agents; Biotechnology industry; Cell culture; Cellular signal transduction; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Enzymes; Experiments; Gene expression; Genes; Genomes; Genomics; Health aspects; Interleukins; Kinases; Mangosteen; Materia medica, Vegetable; Medical equipment and supplies industry; Medical test kit industry; Mitogens; Phosphorylation; Physiological aspects; Plant extracts; Protein kinases; Proteins; R&D; Research & development; Rodents; Tumor necrosis factor; United States
• ISSN: 1749-8546; 1749-8546
• DOI: 10.1186/1749-8546-7-19

α-Mangostin (α-MG) is a main constituent of the fruit hull of the mangosteen. Previous studies have shown that α-MG has pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral effects. This study aims to investigate the anti-inflammatory molecular action of α-MG on gene expression profiles. U937 and EL4 cells were treated with different concentrations of α-MG in the presence of 0.1 ng/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 4 h. The anti-inflammatory effects of α-MG were measured by the levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-4 in cell culture media, which were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. The gene expression profiles of all samples were analyzed with a whole human genome microarray, Illumina BeadChip WG-6 version 3, containing 48804 probes. The protein levels were determined by Western blotting analyses. α-MG decreased the LPS induction of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α (P = 0.038) and IL-4 (P = 0.04). α-MG decreased the gene expressions in oncostatin M signaling via mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, including extracellular signal-regulated kinases (P = 0.016), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (P = 0.01) , and p38 (P = 0.008). α-MG treatment of U937 cells reduced the phosphorylation of MAPK kinase 3 / MAPK kinase 6 (P = 0.0441), MAPK-activated protein kinase-2 (P = 0.0453), signal transducers and activators of transcription-1 (STAT1) (P = 0.0012), c-Fos (P = 0.04), c-Jun (P = 0.019) and Ets-like molecule 1 (Elk-1) (P = 0.038). This study demonstrates that α-MG attenuates LPS-mediated activation of MAPK, STAT1, c-Fos, c-Jun and EIK-1, inhibiting TNF-α and IL-4 production in U937 cells.