Anti-inflammatory effects of the methanol extract of Sedum telephium ssp. maximum in lipopolysaccharide- stimulated rat peritoneal macrophages

Sedum telephium ssp. maximum is a medicinal plant used in popular medicine to cure several inflammatory skin diseases, it appears to possess anti-inflammatory, analgesic and keratolytic properties. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of the methanol extract of Sedum telephium ssp. maximum (STME) in rat peritoneal macrophages (M@s) stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Salmonella enteritidis. After stimulation with 10 Ag/ml of LPS, peritoneal rat M@s were co-incubated with different doses of STME (8 to 32Ag/ml) or RPMI medium alone using different times of incubation. Treatment of STME reduced mRNA levels of tumor necrosis factor-E and significantly inhibited inducible-nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. Moreover, STME blunted nitrite release and significantly inhibited both extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation in LPS-stimulated M@sG. These data, collectively, show that the methanol extract of Sedum telephium ssp. maximum has an inhibitory activity on mitogen activated protein kinases activation and downstream TNF-E and iNOS production, suggesting that this phytoextract might be useful as a potential antiinflammatory agent.