Co-cultured adventitious roots of Echinacea pallida and Echinacea purpurea inhibit lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation via MAPK pathway in mouse peritoneal macrophages

Ming-Zhi Fan; Xiao-Han Wu; Xue-Feng Li; Xuan-Chun Piao; Jun Jiang; Mei-Lan Lian

doi:10.1016/j.chmed.2021.01.001

Co-cultured adventitious roots of Echinacea pallida and Echinacea purpurea inhibit lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation via MAPK pathway in mouse peritoneal macrophages

Chin Herb Med. 2021 Jan 26;13(2):228-234. doi: 10.1016/j.chmed.2021.01.001. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Authors

Ming-Zhi Fan¹, Xiao-Han Wu¹, Xue-Feng Li¹, Xuan-Chun Piao¹, Jun Jiang¹, Mei-Lan Lian¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Agriculture, Yanbian University, Yanji 133002, China.

Abstract

Objective: In order to elucidate the biological activity of the co-cultured adventitious roots (ARs) of Echinacea pallida and Echinacea purpurea and provide theoretical basis for its application, and the anti-inflammatory activities and potential mechanisms of co-cultured ARs were studied.

Methods: The experimental materials were obtained by bioreactor co-culture technology and used in the activity research. In this study, mouse macrophages induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were used as in vitro model. Different concentrations of AR extract (50-400 g/mL) were used to treat cells. The expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines was determined using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 expression, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation, and the inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappa B-α levels were determined by the Western blot analysis.

Results: In the co-cultured ARs, total flavonoids and total caffeic acid were determined, and the contents of both bioactive compounds were significantly higher than those ARs from the single-species culture. Compared with the control group, the large amount of pro-inflammatory mediators was released after LPS stimulation. However, in the extract groups with different concentrations (25, 50, and 100 g/mL), the production of these pro-inflammatory mediators was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the levels of phosphorylation of MAPK proteins, including p-p38, p-c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p-extracellular regulated protein kinases were significantly (P < 0.05) decreased in the extract groups, revealing that the AR extract probably involved in regulating the MAPK signaling pathway.

Conclusion: Collectively, our findings suggested that the co-cultured ARs of E. pallida and E. purpurea can inhibit production of pro-inflammatory mediators in mouse peritoneal macrophages and possess the anti-inflammatory effect by regulating MAPK signaling pathways.

Keywords: Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt; Echinacea purpurea (L.); Moench; adventitious root; anti-inflammation; co-culture; mitogen-activated protein kinase.