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Armeniacae semen is the seed of Prunus armeniaca L. var. ansu MAXIM, which has been classified into Rosaceae. Armeniacae semen is known to have many therapeutic effects such as relieving fever, stopping cough, quenching thirst, and so on. In traditional oriental medicine, Armeniacae semen has been used for the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, constipation, nausea, leprosy, and leucoderma.1,2) Armeniacae semen is divided into the outer husk and an inner part that contains glycoside, amygdaline, starch, and fatty acids. Among them, amygdalin is abundant in the seeds of the Prunus genus almond, apricots, and other rosaceous plants. Amygdalin is also known as vitamain B17, which had been used for the treatment of cancers, and vitamain B17 has been named as laetrile.3) It has been reported that amygdalin is effective for the relief of the pain of cancer patients. 4,5) Pain is first response to injury or infection. Injury and infection activates the immune system to produce an inflammatory responses.6) Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) initiates a number of major cellular responses that play vital roles in the pathogenesis of inflammatory responses. LPS stimulates the production of inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), interleukins, prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ), and leukotrienes. 7,8) Moreover, LPS enhances the pain response to various somatic stimuli. 9,10) PGE 2 is a key inflammatory mediator and an increased level of PGE 2 mediates the cardinal features of inflammation such as pain, edema, and fever.11,12) PGE 2 is converted from arachidonic acid by cyclooxygenase (COX). There are two isoforms of COX: COX-1 and COX-2. While COX-1 is a constitutively expressed form in normal physiologic functions, COX-2 is expressed only in response to such inflammatory signals such as cytokines and bacterial endotoxin, LPS. COX-2 produces large amount of PGE 2 that induces inflammation. 13,14) NO is synthesized from L-arginine by nitric oxide synthase (NOS). NO plays an important role in the regulation of many physiological processes.15) There are three distinct isoforms of NOS: neuronal NOS (nNOS), inducible NOS (iNOS), and endothelial NOS (eNOS). Of these, iNOS is an important enzyme involved in the regulation of inflammation.16) It was reported that LPS upregulates iNOS expression in macrophages 17) and microglial cells. 18)In the present study, the effect of Armeniacae semen extract on the LPS-stimulated expression of COX-1, COX-2, and iNOS in mouse BV2 microglial cells was investigated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot, PGE 2 immunoassay, and NO detection. MATERIALS AND METHODSCell Culture Mouse BV2 microglial cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM; Gibco BRL, Grand Island, NY, U.S.A.) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco BRL) at 37°C in 5% CO 2 -95% O 2 in a humidified cell incubator. The cells were plated ont...

Background: The present study examined the correlations between obesity, sarcopenia, and osteoarthritis in Korea' s elderly population. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of 1,865 and 1,769 respondents with knee osteoarthritis and lumbar spondylosis, respectively, was performed by using data from the 2010 and 2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Obesity was defined as a body mass index of ≥25 kg/m 2 ; osteoarthritis, as a Kellgren/Lawrence grade of ≥2; and sarcopenia, as an appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM; ASM/weight ×100) on dualenergy X-ray absorptiometry of two standard deviations below the mean reference value. Results: The unadjusted and age-adjusted risks of knee osteoarthritis were as follows: 1.88 and 1.92 times greater, respectively, for male subjects with sarcopenic obesity; 6.03 and 7.64 times greater, respectively, for female subjects with non-sarcopenic obesity; and 1.97 and 2.43 times greater, respectively, for female subjects with sarcopenic obesity. The age-and-waist circumference-adjusted risks were 5.88 and 1.80 times greater for the female subjects with non-sarcopenic and sarcopenic obesities, respectively. No statistically significant finding was obtained for lumbar spondylosis. Conclusion: Obesity and sarcopenia were associated with knee osteoarthritis in the elderly subjects. The risk of knee osteoarthritis was greater in the male subjects with sarcopenic obesity than in the male subjects with nonsarcopenic obesity. In the female subjects, the risk of knee osteoarthritis was high in both obesity groups. Further research to explain the sex-related difference in knee osteoarthritis risk based on body composition will be beneficial.