title: Enhanced inhibitory effect of ultra-fine granules of red ginseng on LPS-induced cytokine expression in the monocyte-derived macrophage THP-1 cells.
abstract: Red ginseng is one of the most popular traditional medicines in Korea because its soluble hot-water extract is known to be very effective on enhancing immunity as well as inhibiting inflammation. Recently, we developed a new technique, called the HAC-gearshift system, which can pulverize red ginseng into the ultra-fine granules ranging from 0.2 to 7.0 microm in size. In this study, the soluble hot-water extract of those ultra-fine granules of red ginseng (URG) was investigated and compared to that of the normal-sized granules of red ginseng (RG). The high pressure liquid chromatographic analyses of the soluble hot-water extracts of both URG and RG revealed that URG had about 2-fold higher amounts of the ginsenosides, the biologically active components in red ginseng, than RG did. Using quantitative RT-PCR, cytokine profiling against the Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the monocyte-derived macrophage THP-1 cells demonstrated that the URG-treated cells showed a significant reduction in cytokine expression than the RG-treated ones. Transcription expression of the LPS-induced cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TGF-beta was significantly inhibited by URG compared to RG. These results suggest that some biologically active and soluble components in red ginseng can be more effectively extracted from URG than RG by standard hot-water extraction.
authors.affiliation: Lab of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoeki-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyoung-Cheol
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Lab of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoeki-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Radhakrishnan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vinodhkumar
authors.affiliation: Lab of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoeki-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.|Oriental Medical Science Center, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jang W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Prescriptionology, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seong-Kyu
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: NT&BT Co., Ltd. 92-1, Haengsan-ri, Galsan-myeon, Hongseong-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chang-Won
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Lab of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoeki-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.|HelixPharms Co., Ltd., Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hong-Yeoul
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kim