Effect of sesame lignans on TNF-alpha-induced expression of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells.

The expression of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) has been implicated as one of the most important causes of the development of inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, and, it is speculated that the prevention of it is an effective approach to the control of atherosclerosis. In the present study, we investigated the effect of sesame lignans on the expression of CAMs in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Based on cell-ELISA analysis, we found that sesaminol-6-catechol downregulated the TNF-alpha-induced expression of CAMs in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, these inhibitory effects were caused to be drastically exerted by downregulating the CAM proteins in TNF-alpha-activated HUVECs at transcriptional level. This suggests, that sesaminol-6-catehcol suppresses the expression of CAMs, and may be an active component of sesame lignans.