Suppressive effects of coixol, glyceryl trilinoleate and natural products derived from Coix Lachryma-Jobi var. ma-yuen on gene expression, production and secretion of airway MUC5AC mucin.

In this study, we investigated whether natural products including coixol derived from Coix Lachryma-Jobi var. ma-yuen affect MUC5AC mucin gene expression, production and secretion from airway epithelial cells. Confluent NCI-H292 cells were pretreated with oleic acid, linoleic acid, glyceryl trilinoleate, beta-stigmasterol or coixol for 30 min and then stimulated with PMA (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate), EGF (epidermal growth factor) or TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor-α) for 24 h. The MUC5AC mucin gene expression, mucin protein production and secretion were measured by RT-PCR and ELISA. The results were as follows: (1) Oleic acid, linoleic acid, glyceryl trilinoleate, beta-stigmasterol and coixol inhibited the expression of MUC5AC mucin gene induced by PMA from NCI-H292 cells; (2) Oleic acid, linoleic acid, glyceryl trilinoleate, beta-stigmasterol and coixol also inhibited the production of MUC5AC mucin protein induced by the same inducers from NCI-H292 cells; (3) Coixol inhibited the expression of MUC5AC mucin gene and production of MUC5AC mucin protein, induced by EGF or TNF-α from NCI-H292 cells; (4) Coixol decreased PMA-induced MUC5AC mucin secretion from NCI-H292 cells. This result suggests that coixol, the characteristic component among the examined five natural products derived from C. Lachryma-Jobi var. ma-yuen, can regulate gene expression, production and secretion of mucin, by directly acting on airway epithelial cells.