earticle

영어

Bamboo grass, Sasa quelpaertensis, is a native plant to Jeju Island, Korea. The leaves of Sasa plants are widely used in traditional Korean medicine to treat inflammation-related diseases. We investigated the effect of hot water extract from Sasa quelpaertensis leaves (HWE-SQ) on nitric oxide (NO) production and nuclear factor - xB (NF - xB) activation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. HWE-SQ inhibited LPS-induced NO production and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. Reporter gene assays indicated that HWE-SQ decreases LPS-induced NF - xB transcriptional activation. However, HWE-SQ did not affect the phosphorylation and degradation of inhibitory xBa (1xBa). HWE-SQ also directly inhibited iNOS enzyme activity in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that HWE-SQ suppresses NO synthesis in macrophages by attenuating NF - xB - mediated iNOS protein expression and inhibiting iNOS enzymatic activity, thereby implicating a mechanism by which HWE-SQ is able to ameliorate inflammation-related diseases by limiting excessive or prolonged NO production in pathological events.