title: Anti-inflammatory effect of Artemisiae annuae herba in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 Cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Artemisiae annuae herba (AAH) has been traditionally used as a drug for the treatment of malaria, heat stroke, bacterial infection, and fever in East-Asia. Although AAH has been used for the treatment of inflammation-related symptoms, the underlying mechanism of antiinflammatory activity of AAH is still unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We investigated whether AAH have an inhibitory effect on the production of pro-inflammatory mediators in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  The investigation was forced on the inhibitory effect of AAH on the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, nitric oxide (NO), and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in macrophages. Furthermore, we examined the effect of AAH on the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) pathways.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that AAH suppresses NO production and TNF-α, IL-6, and iNOS gene expression. Moreover, AAH inhibited the nuclear translocation of p65 and IκBα degradation in NF-κB pathway and decreased the extracellular signal-regulated kinase, p38, c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase phosphorylation in MAPK signaling pathway.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Consequently, these results indicate that AAH contains antiinflammatory activity and this effect is derived from the repression on the activation of NF-κB and MAPKs pathways. We first demonstrated that antiinflammatory effect of AAH and its underlying mechanism in macrophage cells.
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, South Korea.
authors.forename: You-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yun Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, South Korea.
authors.forename: Taesoo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, South Korea.
authors.forename: Won-Kyung
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, South Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Yeul
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Ma
keywords: Artemisiae annuae herba; inducible nitric oxide synthase; inflammatory cytokine; mitogen-activated protein kinases; nuclear factor-kappa B