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THE EFFECTS OF ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS ON VEGF AND IL-1Α GENE EXPRESSIONS IN HACAT CELLS: UNRAVELING ITS MECHANISM OF
E Pekmezci1, S Kılıç2, H Sevinç2
11İstanbul Medipol University, International Faculty of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, Turkey.
Background And Objective:
Rosmarinus officinalis (Ro), popularly known as rosemary, is an aromatic perennial shrub originated from Mediterranean region and belongs to family Lamiaceae. Although the health promoting effects of Ro in dermatology, especially in wound healing and hair loss were documented to a certain extent, specific studies in this field are lacking. In this study it is investigated the molecular bases of these cutaneous effects, by determining gene expression levels of VEGF and IL-1α, in a human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) treated with Ro extract.
Methods:
After the preparation of Ro leaf extract and determination of non-cytotoxic concentration, HaCaT cells were treated with the extract. RNA isolations were carried out from both non-treated and treated cell groups. Gene expressions were determined by real time RT-qPCR analysis.
Results:
Results were represented as Target/Control Fold Change, and the treatment ended up with 7.45±1.87 and 0.80±0.17 fold changes for VEGF and IL-1α respectively. Results of gene expression analyses showed that, although the plant extract caused statistically significant upregulation of VEGF (P=0.0258), downregulation of IL-1α was not significant (P=0.2821) compared to gene expressions of untreated control cells.
Conclusions:
Although the modulation of IL-1α found non-significant, the significant upregulation of VEGF may partially explain the mechanism of the beneficiary effects of Ro in wound healing and hair loss. Further in-vitro and in-vivo studies are needed to discover the molecular bases of the therapeutic effects of this plant, and to reveal its potential applications in various skin disorders.
