Honokiol possesses potential anti-inflammatory effects on rheumatoid arthritis and GM-CSF can be a target for its treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the anti-inflammatory effects of honokiol in primary cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of rheumatoid arthritis patients, the pro-inflammatory cytokines and potential targets were investigated.

METHODS: The levels of GM-CSF, IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-8 were determined by ELISA assay. The genes and proteins expression were analyzed by real-time PCR and Western blotting respectively.

RESULTS: The serum IL-1β, TNF-α and GM-CSF levels were 1.76-, 2.16- and 3.57-fold increased in patients with RA as compared to those of control group. Honokiol inhibited the expression levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, GM-CSF and IL-8 in PBMCs with a dose-dependent manner. Measurements obtained from supernatants were positively correlated between TNF-α and IL-1β, moreover, similar results found TNF-α levels positively correlated with GM-CSF and IL-8 activity in the supernatants of PBMCs isolated from RA patients. Furthermore, the mRNA and protein expression of IL-1β, GM-CSF and IL-8 were up-regulated when the PBMCs exposure to TNF-α, however, honokiol treatment significantly reversed the expression of IL-1β, TNF-α and GM-CSF in response to TNF-α with a dose-dependent manner.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that honokiol could possess potential anti-inflammatory effects and inhibits TNF-α-induced IL-1β, GM-CSF and IL-8 production in PBMCs from rheumatoid arthritis patients.