Background: Allergic diseases including allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis are increasing worldwide.\nCommon medications used to treat these inflammatory disorders are anti-histamines and corticosteroids, but they\nhave their own limitations such as short duration and severe side effects. Thus, interest in complementary and\nalternative medicine is continually growing. Here, we investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Tonggyutang\n(TGT), a traditional Korean medicine that has been used to treat patients with allergic nasal disorders.\nMethods: We measured mRNA expressions and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4,\nIL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-�±) by RT-PCR and ELISA assays in HMC-1 (human mast cell line-1)\nand HaCaT cells, immortalized human keratinocytes. Moreover, we evaluated the effect of TGT on two major\ninflammation-related pathways, mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and NF-�ºB signaling pathway in these\ntwo cells.\nResults: Our results revealed that that TGT significantly reduced the expression and production of inflammatory\ncytokines such as IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-�± in the agonist-treated HMC-1 and HaCaT cells. We also found that TGT\nsuppressed MAPK signaling pathway including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), p38 mitogen-activated\nprotein kinase (p38), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) as well as NF-�ºB pathway, which are known to regulate\ninflammatory cytokine expression.\nConclusion: Taken together, our results demonstrate that TGT inhibits expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines by\nsuppressing MAPK and NF-kB pathway in both mast cells and keratinocytes, suggesting the potential use of TGT in\ntreating allergic inflammatory diseases.
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