<em>Astragalus </em><em>m</em><em>embranaceus</em> Extract Activates Immune Response in Macrophages via Heparanase

Abstract

<em>Astragalus membranaceus</em> (AM), a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, has immunoregulatory properties in many diseases. We investigated the effects and mechanism of <em>Astragalus membranaceus</em> extract (AME) in the macrophage migration and immune response mediator release. The viability of Ana-1 macrophages treated with AME was evaluated by the MTT method. The secretion and mRNA levels of IL-1β and TNF-a were measured by ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. Macrophage migration was assayed by transwell assay. The activity of heparanase (HPA) was determined by a heparin-degrading enzyme assay. Our results didn’t show any toxicity of AME in macrophages. AME increased the activity of HPA, cell migration, mRNA levels and secretion of IL-1β and TNF-a in macrophages. Pretreatment with anti-HPA antibody reduced cell migration, secretion of IL-1β and TNF-a did not change the mRNA levels of IL-1β and TNF-a significantly in AME-treated macrophages. This suggests that AME may increase the release of immune response mediator and cell migration via HPA to activate immune response in macrophages.

Keywords

• &lt;em&gt;Astragalus membranaceus&lt;/em&gt; extract
• macrophage
• heparanase
• migration
• immune response mediator
• immune response