AIM: To investigate effect of sodium ferulate on A?25-35-mediated signaling pathway. METHODS: The isolated peritoneal macrophages from mice were cultured. p38 MAPK protein kinase in nuclear extracts was analyzed by Western blotting. The concentration of TNF-? and NO in supernatant were measured by ELISA and Griess reaction technique. The expression of iNOS protein was detected by immunochemical technique. RESULTS: A?25-35 significantly increased the concentrations of TNF-? and NO in supernatant, expression of iNOS in macrophages and p38 MAPK protein kinase in nuclear extracts, which were blocked by sodium ferulate. CONCLUSION: Sodium ferulate inhibits p38 MAPK activation triggered by A?25-35.

The main constituents of a typical medicinal herb,Polygonum muMflorum (Heshouwu in Chinese),that induces idiosyncratic liver injury remain unclear.Our previous work has shown that cotreatment with a nontoxic dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and therapeutic dose of Heshouwu can induce liver injury in rats,whereas the solo treatment cannot induce observable injury.In the present work,using the constituent "knock-out" and "knock-in" strategy,we found that the ethyl acetate (EA) extract of Heshouwu displayed comparable idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity to the whole extract in LPS-treated rats.Results indicated a significant elevation of plasma alanine aminotransferase,aspartate aminotransferase,and liver histologic changes,whereas other separated fractions failed to induce liver injury.The mixture of EA extract with other separated fractions induced comparable idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity to the whole extract in LPS-treated rats.Chemical analysis further revealed that 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxy trans-stilbene-2-O-β-glucoside (trans-SG) and its cis-isomer were the two major compounds in EA extract.Furthermore,the isolated cis-,and not its trans-isomer,displayed comparable idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity to EA extract in LPS-treated rats.Higher contents of cis-SG were detected in Heshouwu liquor or preparations from actual liver intoxication patients associated with Heshouwu compared with general collected samples.In addition,plasma metabolomics analysis showed that cis-SG-disturbing enriched pathways remarkably differed from trans-SG ones in LPS-treated rats.All these results suggested that cis-SG was closely associated with the idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity of Heshouwu.Considering that the cis-trans isomerization of transSG was mediated by ultraviolet light or sunlight,our findings serve as reference for controlling photoisomerization in drug discovery and for the clinical use of Heshouwu and stilbene-related medications.