Anti-inflammatory Effect of Bear's Gall in Rat Microglia

Abstract

We hypothesize that bear's gall may have a certain role in anti-inflammation through a preventive effect of pro-inflammatory potentials. Secondly, we tried to connect the experimental results to Alzheimer's disease (AD), which chronic inflammation is a main cause of the disease. For this theme, we designed to elucidate the efficacy of bear's gall in suppressing the pro-inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide (NO) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in rat microglia. From the study, we concluded that bear's gall plays a positive role in suppressing such pro-inflammatory repertoire from rat microglia comparing to normal and positive control, such as culture media and cyclosporine. Interestingly, bear's gall showed a prolonged effect of anti-inflammation comparing with cyclosporine when time goes by up to 48h with a significant suppression at 1.2 ㎎/㎖. Therefore, we can consider that bear's gall in part can be applied to AD therapy in that it suppresses the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators as well as its continued effect.