title: Macrophage activation by an acidic polysaccharide isolated from Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels.
abstract: This study was designed to identify and characterize the mechanism of macrophage activation by AAP, an acidic polysaccharide fraction isolated from the roots of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels. As a result, AAP significantly enhanced nitric oxide (NO) production and cellular lysosomal enzyme activity in murine peritoneal macrophages in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, L-NAME, a specific inhibitor of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), effectively suppressed AAP-induced NO generation in macrophages, indicating that AAP stimulated macrophages to produce NO through the induction of iNOS gene expression and the result was further confirmed by the experiment of the increase of AAPinduced iNOS transcription in a dose-dependent manner. To further investigate, AAP was shown to strongly augment toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mRNA expression and the pretreatment of macrophages with anti-TLR4 antibody significantly blocked AAP-induced NO release and the increase of iNOS activity, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) secretion.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Medicinal Plant Resource and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xioan 710062, China. xbyang@snnu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Xingbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Haifang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qibing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Mei
mesh_terms: D029971:Angelica sinensis / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic / Q000187:drug effects; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D008262:Macrophage Activation / Q000187:drug effects*; D017737:Macrophages, Peritoneal / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester / Q000494:pharmacology; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D011134:Polysaccharides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester