• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.326-341
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that leads to the progressive destruction of articular cartilage. Current clinical therapeutic strategies are moderately effective at relieving OA-associated pain but cannot induce chondrocyte differentiation or achieve cartilage regeneration. We investigated the ability of wedelolactone, a biologically active natural product that occurs in Eclipta alba (false daisy), to promote chondrogenic differentiation. Methods and Results: Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemical staining, and immunofluorescence staining assays were used to evaluate the effects of wedelolactone on the chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). RNA sequencing, microRNA (miRNA) sequencing, and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation analyses were performed to explore the mechanism by which wedelolactone promotes the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs. We found that wedelolactone facilitates the chondrogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived MSCs and rat bone-marrow MSCs. Moreover, the forkhead box O (FOXO) signaling pathway was upregulated by wedelolactone during chondrogenic differentiation, and a FOXO1 inhibitor attenuated the effect of wedelolactone on chondrocyte differentiation. We determined that wedelolactone reduces enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-mediated histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation of the promoter region of FOXO1 to upregulate its transcription. Additionally, we found that wedelolactone represses miR-1271-5p expression, and that miR-1271-5p post-transcriptionally suppresses the expression of FOXO1 that is dependent on the binding of miR-1271-5p to the FOXO1 3'-untranscribed region. Conclusions: These results indicate that wedelolactone suppresses the activity of EZH2 to facilitate the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs by activating the FOXO1 signaling pathway. Wedelolactone may therefore improve cartilage regeneration in diseases characterized by inflammatory tissue destruction, such as OA.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.289-294
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• 2020

Eclipta prostrata is an annual herb, belonging to Asteraceae family, and has been traditionally used to improve immunity and treat hepatitis and bacterial disease in Korea. In this study, a new coumestan glucoside (1) along with ten known compounds (2 - 11) was isolated from E. prostrata. The chemical structures of isolates were elucidated to be wedelolactone-9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (1), wedelolactone (2), demethylwedelolactone (3), apigenin (4), apigenin-7-sulfate (5), luteolin (6), luteolin-7-sulfate (7), luteolin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (8), pratensein-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (9), 3,4-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (10) and 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (11) based on the spectroscopic evidence.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.164-168
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• 2010

High-performance liquid chromatographic method with diode-array detector and electrospray ionization with multi-stage tandem mass spectroscopy (HPLC/DAD/ESI-$MS^n$) was used to identify the major constituents in a methanolic extract of Eclipta prostrata. The chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 column. Acetonitrile-water was used as a mobile phase. HPLC/DAD/ESI-$MS^n$ allowed the characterization of constituents of E. prostrata, mainly triterpenoids (eclalbasaponin I, II, III, IV, VI), flavonoids (luteolin 7-O-glucoside, demethylwedelolactone, wedelolactone, luteolin, demetylwedelolactone sulfate, luteolin sulfate, apigenin sulfate) and phenolic acids (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 3, 4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3, 5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4, 5-Odicaffeoylquinic acid).

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.326-333
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• 2020

The aerial parts of Eclipta prostrata is used as a traditional medicine and vegetable. In traditional folk medicine, it is used for treatment of hemorrhages, hepatic, disease, renal injuries, hair loss, tooth mobility, and viper bites. In this study, ten compounds (1 - 10) were isolated from the aerial parts of E. prostrata. A reliable high performance liquid chromatography equipped with photometric diode array detector (HPLC-PDA) method was developed to simultaneously quantitate 10 marker compounds [chlorogenic acid (1), paratensein 7-O-��-ᴅ-glucoside (2), quercetin 7-O-��-ᴅ-glucoside (3), luteolin 7-O-��-ᴅ-glucoside (4), apigenin 7-O-��-ᴅ-glucoside (5), apigenin 4'-O-��-ᴅ-glucoside (6), apigenin (7), luteolin (8), wedelolactone (9), and paratensein (10)]. In addition, compounds 5 and 6 showed considerable inhibitory effects against protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) enzyme. Moreover, compounds 6 - 8, and 10 exhibited potent α-glucosidase inhibitory effects with IC50 values of 24.5 ± 1.9, 33.0 ± 0.5, 45.5 ± 0.1, and 23.8 ± 1.0 µM, respectively. All compounds (1 - 10) showed considerable acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory effects with IC50 ranging from 30.1 to 75.2 µM.