Expression of the human -defensin-1 induced by dehydroandrographolide in human pulmonary gland epithelial cells

In this study we observed the enhanced mRNA and protein expression of human -defensin-1 (hBD-1) induced by dehydroandrographolide (DA) in human gland epithelial cells and explored the mechanism of DA on infection treatment. Human pulmonary gland epithelial cells were incubated with DA, then were harvested for hBD-1 expression detection. The mRNA expression of hBD-1 was detected by RT-PCR while the protein expression was detected by Western blot. It was found that DA can up-regulate mRNA and protein expression of hBD-1, the optimal concentration was 80 mu M, the maximal expression of hBD-1 mRNA and protein occurred after 8 h. The DA can up-regulate mRNA and protein expression of hBD-1 in human gland epithelial cells. It suggests that -defensin-1 may play an important role in the treatment of infective diseases with DA.