난백알부민으로 유발된 알러지성 천식모델에서 토후박의 기도염증에 대한 보호효과

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a chronic pulmonary inflammatory disorder with a persistently increasing prevalence. Although many researchers have developed therapeutic agents to control asthma, their applications are limited because of their adverse effects. Machilus thunbergii Siebold & Zucc. has been used as a traditional herbal remedy to control various inflammatory conditions. Methods and Results: In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of M. thunbergii etha- nol extract (MTE) in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma model and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treated RAW264.7 cells. MTE significantly decreased the inflammatory cell count, airway hyper- responsiveness, and cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and OVA-specific immunoglobulin E in serum compared with those in asthmatic mice. Additionally, MTE decreased inflammatory responses and mucus production in asthmatic animals with decreases in NF-κB expression. These results are consistent with the results of in vitro experiments. MTE reduced cytokine and nitric oxide production in LPS treated cells, accompanied with reductions in NF-κB translocation into the nucleus. Conclusions: MTE effectively suppressed asthma induced by OVA exposure, which was associ- ated with the suppression of NF-κB. Therefore, our data suggest that MTE may be a potential ther- apeutic agent for the control of asthma.