PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - LI ZHOU AU - KEN HASHIMOTO AU - KAZUE SATOH AU - YOSHIKO YOKOTE AU - MADOKA KITAJIMA AU - TAKAAKI OIZUMI AU - HIROSHI OIZUMI AU - HIROSHI SAKAGAMI TI - Effect of <em>Sasa senanensis</em> Rehder Extract on NO and PGE<sub>2</sub> Production by Activated Mouse Macrophage-like RAW264.7 Cells DP - 2009 Sep 01 TA - In Vivo PG - 773--777 VI - 23 IP - 5 4099 - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/23/5/773.short 4100 - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/23/5/773.full SO - In Vivo2009 Sep 01; 23 AB - Alkaline extract of Sasa senanensis Rehder (SE) has shown diverse biological activity. As an extension, whether SE affects the function of activated macrophages was investigated. SE inhibited the nitric oxide (NO) production by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated mouse macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses demonstrated that this was due to the inhibition of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression at both protein and mRNA levels. ESR spectroscopy shows that SE dose-dependently scavenged the NO radical produced by NOC-7. In order to confirm the anti-inflammatory potency, possible effects on prostaglandin (PG) E2 production and expression of enzymes involved in the arachidonic acid pathway were next investigated. It was found that SE effectively inhibited the PGE2 production by LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, although the extent of inhibition of PGE2 was slightly less than that of NO production. SE inhibited cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression at both protein and mRNA levels, but to much lesser extents as compared with those for iNOS expression. SE contained much lower concentration of arginine, precursor of NO, as compared with the culture medium. These data suggest that SE exerts a weak anti-inflammatory activity.