Enhancement of catecholamine release from PC12 cells by the traditional Japanese medicine, rikkunshito

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Yasuhito Uezono¹  Kiyoshi Terawaki²  Toshihiko Tsukada³  Yuko Nagamura⁴ 

[1] Division of Cancer Pathophysiology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, 104-0045, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan;Division of Cancer Pathophysiology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, 104-0045, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan;Tsumura Research Laboratories, Tsumura & Co, 3586 Yoshiwara, Ami-machi, 300-1192, Inashiki-gun, Ibaraki, Japan;Division of Familial Cancer Research, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, 104-0045, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan;Division of Familial Cancer Research, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, 104-0045, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan;JBIC Research Institute, Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2-4-7 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan;

关键词: Rikkunshito;    Catecholamine;    PC12;    cAMP;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-14-256

 received in 2013-08-07, accepted in 2014-07-09,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRikkunshito is a traditional Japanese herbal medicine that is used to treat appetite loss associated with cancer and other disorders. The formulation contains various constituents that influence cell signaling, and rikkunshito may accordingly affect human homeostasis through multiple regulatory pathways, including those governed by the endocrine system. We investigated the actions of rikkunshito on catecholamine release from PC12 cells, an adrenal chromaffin cell line.MethodsThe actions of rikkunshito on PC12 cells were evaluated by measuring intracellular cAMP levels, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) mRNA expression levels, and catecholamine levels in the culture medium. The transcriptional activation of VIP gene by rikkunshito was assessed by using a VIP promoter-driven reporter gene assay.ResultsRikkunshito dose-dependently enhanced forskolin-induced elevations in cAMP in PC12 cells, and also increased the gene expression of TH and VIP. The transcriptional activation of VIP gene by rikkunshito was confirmed. Norepinephrine and dopamine secretion into the culture medium of PC12 cells were also dose-dependently augmented by rikkunshito and/or forskolin, but experiments with a protein kinase C (PKC) activator and a phosphodiesterase inhibitor revealed that the effects of rikkunshito were not simply due to the modulation of PKC or phosphodiesterase activity.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that rikkunshito enhances the release of catecholamines by a novel mechanism involving cAMP.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Nagamura et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.