A chinese herbal decoction, danggui buxue tang, stimulates proliferation, differentiation and gene expression of cultured osteosarcoma cells: genomic approach to reveal specific gene activation.
Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a Chinese herbal decoction used to treat ailments in women, contains Radix Astragali (Huangqi; RA) and Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Danggui; RAS). When DBT was applied onto cultured MG-63 cells, an increase of cell proliferation and differentiation of MG-63 cell were revealed: both of these effects were significantly higher in DBT than RA or RAS extract. To search for the biological markers that are specifically regulated by DBT, DNA microarray was used to reveal the gene expression profiling of DBT in MG-63 cells as compared to that of RA- or RAS-treated cells. Amongst 883 DBT-regulated genes, 403 of them are specifically regulated by DBT treatment, including CCL-2, CCL-7, CCL-8, and galectin-9. The signaling cascade of this DBT-regulated gene expression was also elucidated in cultured MG-63 cells. The current results reveal the potential usage of this herbal decoction in treating osteoporosis and suggest the uniqueness of Chinese herbal decoction that requires a well-defined formulation. The DBT-regulated genes in the culture could serve as biological responsive markers for quality assurance of the herbal preparation.
Choi
Roy C Y
RC
Department of Biology and Center for Chinese Medicine, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong.
Gao
Qiu T
QT
Cheung
Anna W H
AW
Zhu
Judy T T
JT
Lau
Faye T C
FT
Li
Jun
J
Li
Winnie Z M
WZ
Chu
Glanice K Y
GK
Duan
Ran
R
Cheung
Jerry K H
JK
Ding
An W
AW
Zhao
Kui J
KJ
Dong
Tina T X
TT
Tsim
Karl W K
KW