Figure 2.

Anti-inflammatory activity of garlic extracts. (A) Inhibition of COX-2 and 5-LO activities by garlic extracts. The activities of garlic extracts were measured by calculating absorbance. * p < 0.05 compared with the FRGE treatment. ^† p < 0.05 compared with the HRGE treatment; (B) Inhibitory effects of garlic extracts on the production of NO and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-1β) in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. The cells were pretreated for 2 h with garlic extract (1000 μg/mL) before stimulation with LPS (1 μg/mL) for 24 h; (C,D) Inhibitory effect of garlic extracts on the LPS-induced PGE₂ secretion and COX-2 expression (C) and on the release of LTD4 and LTE4 (D). The concentrations of nitrite, IL-6, IL-1β, PGE2, LTD4, and LTE4 were measured in the collected media. Total protein isolated from the cells was subjected to western blot analysis for COX-2. The numbers below the blot represent the normalized ratio of the expression levels of COX-2 to those of β-actin for each lane. Equal quantities (30 μg) of total protein were loaded in each lane. β-actin was used as a loading control. * p < 0.05 compared with the control (CTL). ^† p < 0.05 compared with the LPS treatment. ^# p < 0.05 compared with the FRGE treatment.