TY - JOUR T1 - Anti-UV Activity of Kampo Medicines and Constituent Plant Extracts: Re-evaluation with Skin Keratinocyte System JF - In Vivo JO - In Vivo SP - 571 LP - 578 VL - 28 IS - 4 AU - TAKAO KATO AU - SHUNSUKE HINO AU - NORIO HORIE AU - TETSUO SHIMOYAMA AU - TADAYOSHI KANEKO AU - KAORU KUSAMA AU - HIROSHI SAKAGAMI Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/28/4/571.abstract N2 - Aim: In order to search for new biological activity of Kampo medicines and their constituent plant extracts, we investigated their ability to protect the cells from UV irradiation (referred to as ‘anti-UV activity’) using the human immortalised skin keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Materials and Methods: Anti-UV activity was represented by the selectivity index (SI), defined as the ratio of the concentration that reduced the viable cell number by 50% to the concentration that increased the viability of UV-irradiated cells to 50%. Results: HaCaT cells were highly resistant to UV irradiation, approximately 20% of cells survived even when the exposure time was prolonged to 480 min. Sodium ascorbate, a popular antioxidant, used as positive control, had excellent anti-UV activity (SI=200). Among 10 Kampo medicines, Shosaikoto (SI=34) had the highest anti-UV activity, followed by Hangesyashinto (SI>28), Unseiin (SI>23) and Ninjinyoeito (SI=23), Saireito (SI>19), whereas another four Kampo medicines were much less active (SI<9.6). Among 25 constituent plant extracts, Scutellaria root had the highest anti-UV activity (SI=38), followed by Polyporus sclerotium (SI>26), Gardenia fruit (SI>23), Japanese Gentian (SI>20) and Saposhnikovia root (SI>20). Glycyrrhizin also had potent anti-UV activity (SI=36). The SI values determined with the present HaCaT system were generally one order higher than those obtained with previously reported HSC-2 human oral squamous cell carcinoma system, although there was good correlation between these two systems (R2=0.9118). Conclusion. The present study highlights the improved sensitivity of anti-UV activity detection with the HaCaT system, and suggests the possible application of Kampo medicines as a component of sunscreening cosmetics. ER -