Stir-Fry Chicken with Green Curry Suppresses Inflammatory Gene Expression by Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Murine Macrophages

Inflammatory mediators produced during inflammatory response play an important role on pathological development of several chronic diseases. Although several dietary plants exhibited anti-inflammatory property, their impacts as a whole food has been rarely reported. The aim of the present study is to assess anti-inflammatory activity of an ethanol extract from a whole food namely “ready to eat stir-fry chicken with green curry” consisting of green curry paste, big egg plant, pea egg plant, red chili, kaffer lime and sweet basil as plant-based ingredients. The food extract at 55 220 μg/ml was incubated with RAW264.7 murine macrophage cells prior to stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h. Inflammatory mediators [(inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) and interleukine-6 (IL-6)] mRNA and protein were determined by RT-PCR, immunoblot and ELISA respectively. The modulation mechanism by the food extract was observed by measuring the phosphorylated form of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and inhibitor kappa B alpha (IB-). The ready to eat stir-fry chicken with green curry extract significantly suppressed LPS-induced iNOS, COX-2, IL-6 and TNF- gene expression in a dose-dependent manner without cytotoxicity. The suppressive effect was modulated partly by inhibiting phosphorylation of MAPKs and IB-. These results indicate that spices and vegetables in a complex diet still possess strong anti-inflammatory activities which warrant confirming such activities to ameliorate the pathogenesis of inflammatory-associated chronic diseases in vivo.