Vigo E, Cepeda A, Gualillo O, Perez-Fernandez R
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
J Pharm Pharmacol. 2005 Mar;57(3):383-91. doi: 10.1211/0022357055605.
Extracts of the plant species Pinus sylvestris L. and Plantago lanceolata L. have been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of certain respiratory diseases, but little is known about their precise effects and mechanisms of action. In this study, we investigated the effect of these plant extracts on the production of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E(2), NO synthase (NOS) type II, cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and COX-2 mRNA expression in the murine macrophage cell line J774A.1. We found that Pinus sylvestris and Plantago lanceolata extracts inhibited NO production in a concentration-dependent manner in this cell line, without obvious cytotoxic effects as tested by MTT assay. The Plantago lanceolata extract at all doses used, and the Pinus sylvestris extract at high doses, showed significant scavenging of NO radicals released by the NO donor PAPA-NONOate. Our data also show that pre-treatment with these extracts significantly inhibits inducible NOS (iNOS) mRNA production in this cell line, without affecting COX-1 mRNA expression. COX-2 mRNA levels and PGE(2) levels induced by lipopolysaccharide/interferon-gamma were not modified upon pre-treatment with the extracts. Thus, our results suggest that the anti-inflammatory properties of Pinus sylvestris and Plantago lanceolata extracts may reflect decreased NO production, possibly due to inhibitory effects on iNOS gene expression or to NO-scavenging activity.
欧洲赤松（Pinus sylvestris L.）和窄叶车前（Plantago lanceolata L.）这两种植物的提取物在传统医学中已被用于治疗某些呼吸道疾病，但对其确切作用和作用机制知之甚少。在本研究中，我们调查了这些植物提取物对小鼠巨噬细胞系J774A.1中一氧化氮（NO）和前列腺素E2的产生、II型一氧化氮合酶（NOS）、环氧化酶-1（COX-1）和COX-2 mRNA表达的影响。我们发现，欧洲赤松和窄叶车前提取物在该细胞系中以浓度依赖的方式抑制NO的产生，通过MTT法检测无明显细胞毒性作用。所用各剂量的窄叶车前提取物以及高剂量的欧洲赤松提取物均显示出对NO供体PAPA-NONOate释放的NO自由基有显著清除作用。我们的数据还表明，用这些提取物预处理可显著抑制该细胞系中诱导型NOS（iNOS）mRNA的产生，而不影响COX-1 mRNA的表达。提取物预处理后，脂多糖/干扰素-γ诱导的COX-2 mRNA水平和PGE2水平未发生改变。因此，我们的结果表明，欧洲赤松和窄叶车前提取物的抗炎特性可能反映为NO产生减少，这可能是由于对iNOS基因表达的抑制作用或NO清除活性所致。
