Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Bee Venom in BV2 Microglial Cells: Mediation of MyD88-Dependent NF-κB Signaling Pathway

Figure 3

Bee venom inhibits the expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA and protein in LPS-activated BV2 microglia. (a) The effect of bee venom on iNOS mRNA expression in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. (b) The effect of bee venom on COX-2 mRNA expression in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. (c) The effect of bee venom on iNOS and COX-2 protein expression in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. BV2 microglial cells were pretreated with bee venom (0.625–2.5 μg/mL) or vehicle for 30 min and then stimulated with LPS (0.1 μg/mL) for 24 h. Then, total RNA was prepared (to assess mRNA expression), or protein was extracted as described in Section 2. ((a) and (b)) The levels of iNOS and COX-2 mRNA expression were determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The protein concentration of the cell extracts was determined with PRO-MEASURE (iNtRON Biotechnology, Korea). The protein separation and immunoblot procedures are described in Section 2. The data are presented as mean ± SEM, and experiments were performed three to five times. Representative images of experiments performed at least in triplicate are shown. , , and versus LPS alone.

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