Anti-bone resorption properties of the Korean herbal formulation, Honghwain (HHI; Carthamus tinctorius L. seed) was biochemically investigated. On processing bone metabolism, PGE2 accelerated production of IL-1beta in fetal mouse osteoblast and stimulated physiological activation substance, IL-1beta. The novel class of Src tyrosine kinase inhibitors, Herbimycin A (HERB) and HHI reduced COX-2 mR...

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is an important modulator of cytokine-driven inflammation. Using GeneChip analysis, we found that interleukin (IL)-1β induces the gene expression of PTGER4, which encodes the PGE2 receptor subtype EP4 (PGE2EP4). This subtype is one of four PGE2 receptors occurring in synoviocyte MH7A cells. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed a corresponding upregulation in the produc...

Because the onset of fever induced by intravenously (i.v.) injected bacterial endotoxic lipopolysaccharides (LPS) precedes the appearance in the bloodstream of pyrogenic cytokines, the presumptive peripheral triggers of the febrile response, we have postulated previously that, in their stead, PGE2 could be the peripheral fever trigger because it appears in blood coincidentally with the initial ...

− Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by abnormalities in T cell immunoregulation and hyperreactivity of B cells, leading to autoantibody production and multiorgan injuries. We investigated the effect of baicalin on aberrant immunoregulation in pristane-induced lupus mice. Mice received i.p. a single injection of 0.5 ml of pristane or P...

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) plays a key role in osteolytic bone metastasis as well as roles in inflammation, cell growth, and tumor development. PGE2 exerts its effects by binding and activating E-prostanoid receptor (EP). In this study, we propose a new approach for blocking EP-mediated cell signaling using a soluble chimeric EP2 fragment. Mammalian expression vectors encoding several human EP2 cD...

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is well recognized to have a number of potent effects on mast cells, including increasing mast cell numbers in vivo and inducing mast cell degranulation in vitro. More recently, NGF has been demonstrated to induce PGD2 production by mast cells through the induction of mast cell cyclooxygenase expression. We have observed that NGF at doses as low as 10 ng/ml will induce...

Although prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a pro-inflammatory mediator, it also produces some effect which is anti-inflammatory in character. It is suggested that one of the mechanisms responsible for the latter effect is the increased synthesis of IL-10. The aim of this study has been to determine the influence of PGE2 on IL-10 production by bovine CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and NK cells. With this aim, p...

Eicosanoid release during multilineage hematopoiesis was assessed using freshly isolated mouse bone marrow cells cultured in the presence of interleukin-3 (IL-3) (10% WEHI-3 culture-conditioned medium). Cells that could release prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) when stimulated with calcium ionophore A23187, but not with phorbol ester (PMA), appeared within 4 days. The cells harvested on day 10 released 4...

Previous studies have characterized the total polyphenolic contents, antioxidant activity, tyrosinase, elastase, and NO production of halophytes. Halophytes are distributed among many countries; however, it has not been properly utilized. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of halophyte Euphorbia helioscopia (E.H.) on the LPS-induced inflammatory response in RAW 264.7 macrophag...

Alterations in microRNA (miRNA) expression may contribute to COPD pathogenesis. In COPD, lung fibroblast repair functions are altered in multiple ways, including extracellular mediator release. Our prior study revealed miR-503 expression is decreased in COPD lung fibroblasts, although the exact role played by miR-503 is undetermined. The current study examined a role of miR-503 in cytokine, gro...