Figure 3.

Bergenin treatment activates the MAPK pathway. (A) Peritoneal macrophages were untreated or treated with 50-μg/ml bergenin for different time periods. Phosphorylation of p38 MAPK, ERK1/2, and SAPK/JNK was assessed in whole cell lysate of bergenin-treated or untreated macrophages by Western blot. (B) Bacterial burden in the macrophages after treatment with MEK-1/2 inhibitor (U0126 from Cell Signaling Technologies). We isolated peritoneal macrophages, treated these cells with a MEK-1/2 inhibitor (20 μM) overnight, followed by infection with H37Rv and treatment with or without bergenin. Forty-eight hours later we harvested the cells for CFU assay, which revealed that treatment with bergenin was unable to reduce the bacterial burden in the presence of the MEK-1/2 inhibitor. The results shown here are representative of three independent experiments. ^*Indicates significant for p-value.