Leung Yuet Kin, Ng Tzi Bun, Ho John W
Department of Biochemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mong Man Wai Building Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
Life Sci. 2003 Oct 31;73(24):3109-21. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2003.05.003.
Licorice is a commonly used herbal medicine for treatment of liver disorders. Its biological activities have been widely studied. However, little information on its transcriptional regulation has been reported. In the present study, the effect of an aqueous extract of licorice on the gene expression in rat liver cells (Clone 9) was investigated. The results show the expression of GST-pi, DT-diaphorase, PAI-1, fosl-1 and uPAR were over two-fold increased. Northern blot analysis revealed that the over-expression of these genes was concentration-dependent (0.25-3 mg/ml) but the temporal expression profile (8-48 h) of each individual gene varied. The over-expression of fosl-1 could be related to the event in the induction process leading to the expression of GST-pi, DT-diaphorase, uPAR and PAI-1 through AP-1. Induction of the over-expression of GST-pi and DT-diaphorase genes may contribute to the hepatoprotective properties of licorice whereas activation of uPAR and PAI-1 together with down-regulation of TIMP-3 suggest a role of LE in the regulation of cell mobility.
甘草是一种常用于治疗肝脏疾病的草药。其生物活性已得到广泛研究。然而，关于其转录调控的信息报道较少。在本研究中，研究了甘草水提取物对大鼠肝细胞（Clone 9）基因表达的影响。结果显示，谷胱甘肽S-转移酶π（GST-pi）、DT-二氢嘧啶脱氢酶、纤溶酶原激活物抑制剂-1（PAI-1）、Fosl-1和尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活物受体（uPAR）的表达增加了两倍以上。Northern印迹分析表明，这些基因的过表达呈浓度依赖性（0.25 - 3 mg/ml），但每个基因的时间表达谱（8 - 48小时）各不相同。Fosl-1的过表达可能与通过激活蛋白-1（AP-1）诱导GST-pi、DT-二氢嘧啶脱氢酶、uPAR和PAI-1表达的过程有关。GST-pi和DT-二氢嘧啶脱氢酶基因过表达的诱导可能有助于甘草的肝脏保护特性，而uPAR和PAI-1的激活以及金属蛋白酶组织抑制因子-3（TIMP-3）的下调表明甘草提取物（LE）在细胞迁移调节中发挥作用。
