Anti-inflammatory activity of methylene chloride fraction from Glehnia littoralis extract via suppression of NF-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinase activity

Glehnia littoralis (umbelliferae) has been used traditionally in korean,japanese,and chinese medicine for the treatment of immune-related diseases; however,its anti-inflammatory activity and underlying mechanism remain to be defined. we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect and inhibitory mechanism on inflammation by the methylene chloride fraction from glehnia littoralis extract (mcf-gle),which was more effective than glehnia littoralis extract (gle). mcf-gle inhibited 12-o-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (tpa)-induced inflammation in an inflammatory edema mouse model. also,mcf-gle strongly inhibited the releases of nitric oxide (no),prostaglandin e2 (pge2),tumor necrosis factor-α (tnf-α),and interleukin-1β (il-1β) and significantly suppressed the mrna and protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated raw 264.7 macrophage cells in a dosedependent manner. furthermore,mcf-gle suppressed nf-κb activation and iκb-α degradation. mcf-gle also attenuated the activation of erk and jnk in a dose-dependent manner. these results indicate that mcf-gle has an inhibitory effect on the in vivo and in vitro inflammatory reaction and is a possible therapeutic agent. our results suggest that the anti-inflammatory properties of mcf-gle may result from the inhibition of pro-inflammatory mediators,such as no,pge2,tnf-α,and il-1β via suppression of nf-κb- and mitogen-activated protein kinases-dependent pathways. ©2010 the japanese pharmacological society.