Mediators of Inflammation (Jan 2013)

p38/AP-1 Pathway in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammatory Responses Is Negatively Modulated by Electrical Stimulation

  • Deok Jeong,
  • Jaehwi Lee,
  • Young-Su Yi,
  • Yanyan Yang,
  • Kyoung Won Kim,
  • Jae Youl Cho

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/183042
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2013

Abstract

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Electrical stimulation with a weak current has been demonstrated to modulate various cellular and physiological responses, including the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and acute or chronic physical pain. Thus, a variety of investigations regarding the physiological role of nano- or microlevel currents at the cellular level are actively proceeding in the field of alternative medicine. In this study, we focused on the anti-inflammatory activity of aluminum-copper patches (ACPs) under macrophage-mediated inflammatory conditions. ACPs generated nanolevel currents ranging from 30 to 55 nA in solution conditions. Interestingly, the nanocurrent-generating aluminum-copper patches (NGACPs) were able to suppress both lipopolysaccharide-(LPS-) and pam3CSK-induced inflammatory responses such as NO and PGE2 production in both RAW264.7 cells and peritoneal macrophages at the transcriptional level. Through immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation analyses, we found that p38/AP-1 could be the major inhibitory pathway in the NGACP-mediated anti-inflammatory response. Indeed, inhibition of p38 by SB203580 showed similar inhibitory activity of the production of TNF-α and PGE2 and the expression of TNF-α and COX-2 mRNA. These results suggest that ACP-induced nanocurrents alter signal transduction pathways that are involved in the inflammatory response and could therefore be utilized in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and colitis.