Study on Dendrobium officinale O-acetyl-glucomannan (Dendronan ®): Part III–Immunomodulatory activity in vitro

Publication date: April 2015 Source:Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre, Volume 5, Issue 2 Author(s): Hai-lan Cai, Xiao-jun Huang, Shao-ping Nie, Ming-yong Xie, Glyn O. Phillips, Steve. W. Cui Dendrobium officinale, ranked as the first of “Nine kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs”, has been used for centuries to treat a variety of health problems. However, less is known about the active components which confer the therapeutic properties of D. officinale. In the present study, the effects of aqueous extract, crude polysaccharide and purified polysaccharide from the stems of D. officinale (Dendronan®) were examined on mouse macrophage line RAW 264.7 cells. Both aqueous extracts and polysaccharide are shown to be non-cytotoxic and can activate macrophages, resulting in enhancing phagocytic activity, up-regulating nitric oxide (NO), and influencing the cytokine production. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that the increases in the secretion of NO, and cytokines are due to the increase in their mRNA expressions. Western immunoblotting revealed that Dendronan® is able to up-regulate the expression of iNOS protein. Our data suggests a molecular basis to show that the active component of D. officinale is a purified polysaccharide, Dendronan®. Graphical abstract
Source: Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre - Category: Food Science Source Type: research