Evaluation of the proliferative activity of methanol extracts from six medicinal plants in murine spleen cells

Abstract

A number of natural compounds have been used as immunomodulatory agents, enabling the function of the immune system to be modified by stimulating or suppressing it. There has been increasing interest in the study of therapeutic action of plant extracts regarding their immunomodulatory activity. The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the action of extracts of the medicinal plants Calophyllum brasiliense, Ipomoea pes-caprae, Matayba elaeagnoides, Maytenus robusta, Rubus imperialis and Vernonia scorpioides on the development of spleen cells from mice, using the in vitro cellular proliferation assay. The cells, obtained by mechanical rupture of mice spleen (5x10 4 cells/mL), were incubated with methanol extracts (10, 50, 100 and 200 mg/mL) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA, 5 mg/mL). The basal control for proliferation consisted of cells alone, while the positive control consisted of cells and PHA. The cell culture was kept at 37 o C in 5% CO 2 for 72 hours, and cell proliferation was revealed by the blue tetrazolium reduction assay (MTT). The results were expressed as percentage of growth and were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. The C. brasiliense, I. pes-caprae and M. elaeagnoides extracts showed dose-dependent induction of cell proliferation, with a significant increase in cell proliferation (p<0.03) and percentage growth of 88.2%, 73.1% and 52.7%, respectively, suggesting T lymphocyte stimulation. By contrast, M. robusta, R. imperialis and V. scorpioides extracts showed significance only with a negative percentage of growth, suggesting inhibition of cell proliferation (p<0.04). Further biomonitoring studies will enable the fractions and isolated substances responsible for the immunomodulatory activities to be identified. Várias substâncias de origem natural têm sido utilizadas como agentes imunomoduladores, permitindo modificar a função do sistema imune e propiciando o estudo de atividades terapêuticas de extratos de plantas. Este trabalho objetivou identificar a atividade imunomodulatória dos extratos de seis plantas medicinais da flora brasileira, Calophyllum brasiliense, Ipomoea pes-caprae, Matayba elaeagnoides, Maytenus robusta, Rubus imperialis e Vernonia scorpioides, sobre a proliferação de células esplênicas de camundongos. As células esplênicas murinas obtidas por ruptura mecânica do baço (5x14 3 células/mL) foram incubadas com os extratos metanólicos das plantas (10, 50, 100, 200 mg/mL) e fito-hemaglutinina (PHA, 5 mg/mL). O controle basal de proliferação foi constituído de células apenas e o controle positivo formado por células e PHA. O cultivo celular foi mantido a 37 o C, 5% de CO 2 , 72 horas, com quantificação da proliferação celular pelo ensaio de redução do azul de tetrazólio. Os resultados expressos em percentagem de crescimento foram analisados pelos testes de Kruskal-Wallis e Mann-Whitney. Os extratos de C. brasiliense, I. pes-caprae e M. elaeagnoides mostraram indução dose-dependente da proliferação celular (p<0,03), com percentagem de crescimento de, respecti...

Effects of pH on antioxidant and prooxidant properties of common medicinal herbs

“…The ability of different herb extracts to activate cell proliferation was demonstrated earlier. Usually, the stimulation effects were observed at low doses of plant preparations with inhibitory effects at higher ones [47,48]. For example, it has been reported that hyperforin from H. perforatum can induce keratinocyte differentiation in vitro [49].…”

The methanolic extract ofGuibourtia tessmannii(caesalpiniaceae) and selenium modulate cytosolic calcium accumulation, apoptosis and oxidative stress in R2C tumour Leydig cells: Involvement ofTRPV1 channels

“…In the current study, the cell viability was observed to be significantly lowered in the cells incubated with the methanolic extract of G. tessmannii (100–500 μg/ml) for 1–10 hours. The highest dose of G. tessmannii (1,000 μg/ml) had the tendency to increase the cell viability after 24 hours of incubation, which may suggest that the components present in this plant feed the cells (At high dose), as observed with Calophyllum brasiliense, Ipomoea pes‐caprae and Matayba elaeagnoides extracts (Zandonai et al., ). The dose (500 μg/ml) and duration (5 hr) of incubation for G. tessmannii were selected for further studies because high dose (1,000 μg/ml) had the tendency to increase the cell viability after 10–24 hr of incubation.…”

Immunomodulatory activity of methanol leaf extracts of Cameroonian medicinal plants

“…mannii, A. intrusa and C. chinensis extracts exhibited stimulatory activity on peripheral blood lymphocytes, significantly greater than that of PHA. PHA is the most used lectin in the activation of T lymphocytes in vitro and enables the evaluation of immune response mediated by this cell type [24]. Thus, the results obtained with the methanol extract of A. mannii, A. intrusa and C. chinensis suggest that the constituent(s) present in these plants could act as lectins and stimulate T lymphocytes proliferation.…”