Yin et al. BMC Genomics 2010, 11:612 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/11/612 R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Open Access Stimulatory effect of Echinacea purpurea extract on the trafficking activity of mouse dendritic cells: revealed by genomic and proteomic analyses Shu-Yi Yin1,3,4, Wen-Hsin Wang1, Bi-Xue Wang1, Kandan Aravindaram1, Pei-Ing Hwang2, Han-Ming Wu5, Ning-Sun Yang1* Abstract Background: Several Echinacea species have been used as nutraceuticals or botanical drugs for “immunostimulation”, but scientific evidence supporting their therapeutic use is still controversial. In this study, a phytocompound mixture extracted from the butanol fraction (BF) of a stem and leaf (S+L) extract of E. purpurea ([BF/S+L/Ep]) containing stringently defined bioactive phytocompounds was obtained using standardized and published procedures. The transcriptomic and proteomic effects of this phytoextract on mouse bone marrow- derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) were analyzed using primary cultures. Results: Treatment of BMDCs with [BF/S+L/Ep] did not significantly influence the phenotypic maturation activity of dendritic cells (DCs). Affymetrix DNA microarray and bioinformatics analyses of genes differentially expressed in DCs treated with [BF/S+L/Ep] for 4 or 12 h revealed that the majority of responsive genes were related to cell adhesion or motility (Cdh10, Itga6, Cdh1, Gja1 and Mmp8), or were chemokines (Cxcl2, Cxcl7) or signaling molecules (Nrxn1, Pkce and Acss1). TRANSPATH database analyses of gene expression and related signaling pathways in treated-DCs predicted the JNK, PP2C-a, AKT, ERK1/2 or MAPKAPK pathways as the putative targets of [BF/S+L/Ep]. In parallel, proteomic analysis showed that the expressions of metabolic-, cytoskeleton- or NF- B signaling-related proteins were regulated by treatment with [BF/S+L/Ep]. In vitro flow cytometry analysis of chemotaxis-related receptors and in vivo cell trafficking assay further showed that DCs treated with [BF/S+L/Ep] were able to migrate more effectively to peripheral lymph node and spleen tissues than DCs treated as control groups. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that [BF/S+L/Ep] modulates DC mobility and related cellular physiology in the mouse immune system. Moreover, the signaling networks and molecules highlighted here are potential targets for nutritional or clinical application of Echinacea or other candidate medicinal plants. Background Dendritic cells (DCs) participate in a wide spectrum of immune cell functions including antigen-presentation, phagocytic activity and T cell-mediated immunities [1]. Currently, a number of experimental approaches are being evaluated to develop DC-based immunotherapy and gene-based tumor vaccine strategies to elicit specific immunities against specific cancers (e.g., prostate cancer) or infectious diseases [2-8]. DCs can capture and take up antigens present in peripheral tissue and transport them * Correspondence: nsyang@gate.sinica.edu.tw 1Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article to primary and secondary lymphoid tissue for presenta- tion to T cells [4]. Therefore, extensive research regard- ing cell migration, homing, and the cellular fate of DCs in various tissue systems is considered a critical issue. Research on mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) has shown the importance of using experimen- tal models for research into DC-based therapeutics [5-8]. We recently reported the effect and possible application of Echinacea purpurea (Ep) phytocompounds as immune-modifiers for human DCs using functional genomic and proteomic approaches [9,10]. Here, we extended our study to the mouse DC system, and investi- gated the effects of the chemically defined Ep phyto- extracts (BF/S+L/Ep) on immunomodulatory activity and © 2010 Yin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.