Insampaedok-san (IS) has traditionally been prescribed as a medication for cold-related symptoms in Northeast Asia, including Korea and China. In this study, we focused on elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying immunomodulatory activity of IS water extract (ISE) macrophages. ISE significantly enhanced levels nitric oxide (NO) prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) by increasing expression inducible NO...

Several bone protective factors are reported to exhibit stimulatory activities on bone formation coupled with inhibitory effects on bone resorption; one such factor is vitamin K2. Vitamin K species [K1 (phylloquinone) and K2 (menaquinone)] have long been associated with bone protective activities and are receiving intense interest as nutritional supplements for the prevention or amelioration of...

Bovine retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells express an inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS-II) after activation with interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Experiments were performed to investigate the effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (genistein and herbimycin A) and antioxidants [pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) and butyl hydroxyanisol] on NOS-II induction. The LPS-IFN-...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contains unmethylated CpG motifs that exhibit immune stimulatory capacities. The aim of this study was to investigate whether mtDNA activates the Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9)/nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway, thereby contributing to post-traumatic systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and lung injury in rats. The effects of mtDNA on macrophage culture were exa...

BACKGROUND Gram-positive bacteria stimulate Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 and then activate the pro-inflammatory nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. As the human ocular surface is heavily colonised by gram-positive cocci bacteria, a balance of activation/repression of NF-κB target genes is essential to avoid uncontrolled infection or autoimmune-related inflammation. It is advantageous to test ...

In this study, we examined the protective effects of porphyra-334 against UVA-irradiated cellular damage and elucidated the underlying mechanisms. Porphyra-334 prevented UVA-induced cell death and exhibited scavenging activities against intracellular oxidative stress induced by UVA irradiation in skin fibroblasts. We found that porphyra-334 significantly reduced the secretion and expression of ...

Introduction . Macrophages occupy a special place in the formation and coordination of immune response, their population is characterized by heterogeneity, however, two main types are distinguished among them: pro-inflammatory (classically activated) macrophages M1, which activated interferon-γ (IFN-γ) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) bacteria, produce cytokines, nitric oxide (NO) initiate an anti-i...

OBJECTIVES To examine the immunohistochemical expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in benign endometrial polyps (EPs), endometrial hyperplasia (EH), endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia (EIN), and endometrioid endometrial cancer (EC). METHODS The immunohistochemical expression of COX-2 and NF-κB was performed using an Aperio Scanscope XT automated system in 21...

Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a nuclear transcription factor first recognized in 1986 by Sen and Baltimore. Its name derives from the fact that it was first diagnosed in the nuclei of B cells [13] bound to an enhancer element of the immunoglobulin kappa light chain gene [4]. At that time, NF-κB was primarily thought to be a B-cell–specific transcription factor, but it was afterward found to be p...

Glucocorticoids (GCs) exert their anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative effects principally by inhibiting the expression of cytokines and adhesion molecules. Mechanistically, GCs diffuse through the cell membrane, and bind to their inactive cytosolic receptors (GRs), which then undergo conformational modifications that allow for their nuclear translocation. In the nucleus, activated GRs modul...