Pharmacol Res. 2002 Oct; 46(4): 333-7.

Aqueous extract from rhizoma notopterygii reduces contact sensitivity by inhibiting lymphocyte migration via down-regulating metalloproteinase activity.

Sun Y, Xu Q.

Department of Pharmacology for Chinese Materia Medica, Department of Chinese Medicinal Prescription, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tong Jia Xiang, Nanjing 210009, China.

In the present paper we examined the effects of the aqueous extract from Rhizoma notopterygii (RN-ext) on picryl chloride-induced contact sensitivity (PCl-CS). The extract, administered during either induction or effector phase showed a significant inhibition on the ear swelling in mice with PCl-CS. By using the isolated spleen cells from the mice with PCl-CS, we demonstrated the inhibitory effects of RN-ext on matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 activities. However, such inhibition was not found in those from normal mice. The inhibitory effects on MMP-2 and MMP-9 of RN-ext were also observed when it was administered in vivo. In addition, the extract significantly inhibited the migration of spleen cells from PCl-CS mice in transwell system without affecting the cell adhesion to fibronectin. These results suggest that RN-ext exerts its inhibitory activity on the contact sensitivity through decreasing the localization to the inflammation site via down-regulating MMP activities.