Fig. 2

Salsola komarovii ethanol extract (SEE) attenuates NF-κB activation and cytokine production. The untreated group was used as the control. a Immunofluorescence analysis of NF-κB translocation into the nucleus in HaCaT cells. The cells were pre-treated with 1 μM HC (positive control) or 40 μg/mL SEE before 10 ng/mL TNF-α stimulation, followed by staining of NF-κB (red fluorescence) and nucleus with DAPI (blue fluorescence). Original magnification, 400×; scale bar = 100 μm. b Effect of SEE on NF-κB activation induced by TNF-α treatment, determined using the luciferase reporter gene assay. After being transiently transfected with the NF-κB-responsive reporter and Renilla plasmid, HepG2 cells were pre-treated with 1 μM HC or SEE (1000 or 5000 μg/mL) before 10 ng/mL TNF-α stimulation. Luciferase activity was normalized to Renilla plasmid luminescence. Data are shown as relative luciferase activity corrected using that of the control group. The results are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 versus TNF-α-treated group. c Effect of SEE on LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine production. IL-6 ELISA was performed using the culture supernatant of Thp-1 cells, which were treated with 1 μM HC or SEE (8–200 μg/mL) as well as 1 μg/mL LPS . Data are presented as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. ***p < 0.001 vs. LPS-treated group