Abstract
Surfactin is primarily produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 and is one of the most powerful biosurfactants. It consists of a heptapeptide interlinked with a β-hydroxy fatty acid. Because of its special structure, surfactin shows broad biological effects, including anti-tumour, anti-microbial and anti-mycoplasma activities. It also has potential anti-inflammatory activity; however, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of surfactin has not been explored. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory mechanism of surfactin in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages. Surfactin exhibited an anti-inflammatory effect without cytotoxicity at certain concentrations, and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated cells appeared normal after surfactin treatment. Surfactin significantly inhibited the increased expression of IFN-γ, IL-6, iNOS and nitric oxide (NO). TLR4 is the critical receptor for LPS; therefore, the TLR4 signal transduction pathway is the primary pathway that mediates LPS-induced inflammation. The results show that surfactin downregulated the LPS-induced TLR4 protein expression of macrophages and indicated that the surfactin-mediated signal pathway was involved in with TLR4. The subsequent studies demonstrated that surfactin exhibited anti-inflammatory effects by attenuating the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), which is involved in the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) cell signalling pathways. These results suggest that surfactin may be a new therapeutic agent for inflammation.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by these projects in China (2012BAD33B04, 13JCZDJC29800, 31000768, 2012AA022108, 2012GB2A100016, 2013AA102106, 10ZCZDSY07000, 31171731 and IRT1166).
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Zhang, Y., Liu, C., Dong, B. et al. Anti-inflammatory Activity and Mechanism of Surfactin in Lipopolysaccharide-Activated Macrophages. Inflammation 38, 756–764 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-014-9986-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-014-9986-y