Chem Biodivers. 2009 Jun 23; 6(6): 916-923Chen FY, Ye YP, Sun HX, Li XY, Shi HStemucronatoside L (SML), isolated from Stephanotis mucronata, could suppress the activation of T cells in vitro. However, the mechanisms responsible for its immunosuppressive activity remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether SML could suppress Th1/Th2 immune responses and to characterize the cellular mechanisms involved. Effects of SML on T-lymphocyte subsets and the production of Th1 cytokines IL-2 and IFN-gamma, and Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 from ConA-stimulated mice splenocytes were detected by flow-cytometric analysis and ELISA method, respectively. Furthermore, effects of SML on mRNA expression level of Th1/Th2 cytokines and transcription factors T-bet and GATA-3 were evaluated by RT-PCR analysis. SML not only significantly decreased the percentage of CD4(+) T cells and the CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio, but reduced the production of Th1/Th2 cytokines in a concentration-dependent manner. The mRNA expression levels of Th1/Th2 cytokines and transcription factors (T-bet and GATA-3) were also suppressed by SML. These results suggested that SML could simultaneously inhibit Th1/Th2 immune responses by suppressing gene expression of Th1/Th2 cytokines and transcription factors.

Yao Xue Xue Bao. 2009 Apr; 44(4): 436-9Chen RD, Zou JH, Jia JM, Dai JGSyringin is one of the main bioactive ingredients in Saussurea involucrata. In this study, various chromatographic techniques were employed to isolate and purify syringin in the polar extraction of cell suspension cultures of S. involucrata. The structure of syringin was characterized by the analysis of spectroscopic data. A quantitative analytical method for the content of syringin in cultures of S. involucrata was established with RP-HPLC. The method is convenient, accurate and reliable. All this results provided a basis for further studies on application of cell suspension cultures of S. involucrata for large-scale production of bioactive compound syringin.

Cancer Lett. 2009 Jun 16; Zhang Z, Wang S, Qiu H, Duan C, Ding K, Wang ZWaltonitone, a new ursane-type pentacyclic triterpene isolated from Gentian waltonii Burkill significantly inhibited human hepatocellular carcinoma BEL-7402 cells growth. Apoptosis induced by waltonitone was characterized by AO/EB staining and flow cytometric analysis. Apoptosis microarray assay results showed BCL-2 family genes might especially play an important role in waltonitone-induced apoptosis. RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis showed that waltonitone could induce tumor cell apoptosis via both death receptor and mitochondria pathways. Meanwhile, the inhibitory effect of waltonitone was examined in vivo using BEL-7402 tumor cells xenografted into athymic mice model. In summary, these studies demonstrated that waltonitone might inhibit hepatocellular carcinoma cells growth and induce apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.

Yao Xue Xue Bao. 2009 Apr; 44(4): 362-5Yuan YH, Sun JD, Hu JF, Chen NHThe aim of this study is to investigate the neurotoxic effect and mechanism of 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) on PC12 cells. MTT assay was used to investigate cell viability, Western blotting assay was performed to observe the protein level and phosphorylation, and dual-luciferase assay was used to study the transactivation. The experiment showed that MPP+ could decrease cell viability significantly in a dose-dependent manner and could decrease BDNF protein level, depress the phosphorylation of ERK, and attenuate the phosphorylation and transactivation of CREB, which is one of transcription factors of BDNF, but did not affect the activity of CaMK II in PC12 cells. So MPP+ might decrease BDNF protein level through MAPK/ERK signal pathway.