Garcinia mangostana, commonly known as mangosteen, belongs to the Guttiferae family and is known as “the queen of
fruits”. It is native to and most cultivated in tropical areas, particularly in
Southeast Asian countries. In these countries,
mangosteens, especially the pericarp, have traditionally been used as a medicine
for the treatment of various diseases such as abdominal pain, urinary tract infections, and infected
wounds and suppuration, and is thought to have many other pharmaceutical
effects.
α-mangostin is an abundant xanthone in the pericarp,
and is thought to play a critical role in the medicinal effects of mangosteens.
Experimental studies have confirmed the therapeutic properties of α-mangostin, such as its antioxidant,
antitumoral, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, there is little scientific
evidence to support their effectiveness in humans. At the same time, α-mangostin has been extensively studied
using in vitro models, such as cell
culture, but in vivo studies using
real animals have not been reported.
Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate
the physiological effects of α-mangostin
on C. elegans, which is a nematode
that is used extensively in biological research, as well as the pathways and
genes that comprise the underlying mechanisms. Wild-type C.
elegans Bristol N2, daf-2 (e1370), and daf-16 (mgDf50) were provided by the
Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC, MN, USA). And quantitative real time PCR
(qRT-PCR) was used to examine the expression of heat shock proteins. Statistical
significance was determined using a two-tailed t-test with the analysis
software SPSS (IBM, NY, USA).
The results revealed that α-mangostin
appeared to cause an increase in fat accumulation, which correlated with an
increase in pharyngeal movement. The thrashing movement of the worms after heat
stress also showed a correlation with an increase in heat shock protein mRNA
expression. And the results of the heat stress tolerance assay suggest that
α-mangostin promotes thermotolerance through daf-16.
Article by Nattapong Thammawong, et al, from University of
Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
Full access: http://mrw.so/517CGx
Image by Hafiz Issadeen, from Flickr-cc.
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