Decreased expression of aromatase in the Ishikawa and RL95-2 cells by the isoflavone, puerarin, is associated with inhibition of c-jun expression and AP-1 activity

Chaoqin Yu, Yanwei Li, Li Y, Huan Chen, Shengsheng Yang, Yang S, Guangru Xie, Xie G
Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association · 2008 · vol. 46(12) , pp. 3671–3676 · doi:10.1016/j.fct.2008.09.045 · PMID:18848966 · W1987640074
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Puerarin treatment decreases aromatase expression in Ishikawa and RL95-2 cells, which is linked to reduced c-jun expression and AP-1 activity.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Aromatase P450 (P450(arom)) is overexpressed in endometriosis, endometrial cancers and uterine fibroids. With weak estrogen agonists/antagonists and some other enzymatic activities, isoflavones are increasingly advocated as a natural alternative to estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and are available as dietary supplements. Puerarin is major isoflavonoid compound isolated from Pueraria lobata, a Chinese medicine known as Gegen. Our clinical study shows that puerarin can be used in the treatment of endometriosis, which improves pain and infertility. Assuming that the effect of puerarin on endometriosis may result from the regulation of aromatase expression or activity, we carried out this study to test the effects of puerarin on aromatase in Ishikawa and RL95-2 cell lines. Our data have demonstrated a significant decrease of P450(arom) expression at both mRNA and protein levels by low dose puerarin treatment in both cell lines. Besides, we found that the -410/-401bp and -565/-559bp regions of aromatase promoter II contained the critical cis-acting elements, binding AP-1 and c-jun. We also found that puerarin exerted a time-course effect on the inhibition of c-jun mRNA, which parallelled that of P450(arom). To further confirm if c-jun is responsible for the P450(arom) regulation by puerarin, we knocked down c-jun expression using siRNA and it indicates that c-jun acts as a considerable transcription factor in regulating P450(arom) expression and activity. Accordingly, the suppression of P450(arom) expression and activity by puerarin treatment may associate with the downregulation of transcription factor AP-1 or c-jun.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

MeSH descriptors

Aromatase Aromatase Inhibitors Isoflavones Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun Transcription Factor AP-1 5' Flanking Region Aromatase Aromatase Blotting, Western Cell Line Down-Regulation Down-Regulation Endometrium Endometrium Endometrium Epithelial Cells Epithelial Cells Estradiol Estradiol Female

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (31)

Cited by (5)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-24T06:08:07.662257+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:14:24.299271+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK