Authors:
Renate Klöcking, Ralf Junek, Carola Kleiner, Roland Schubert and Juergen I. Schoenherr
Book:
After Wise Use – The Future of Peatlands, Proceedings of the 13th International Peat Congress: Peat Balneology
Keywords:
fulvic-acids, humic-acids, humic-substances, peat
Documentfile:
Klöcking et al. 2008: In vitro investigations on the effect of peat humic substances on inflammation
Summary:
With the objective of understanding the role of humic substances in inflammation, the influence of humic and fulvic acids on the release of the inflammation marker TNF-α in both lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated and non-stimulated U937 cells was investigated. Humic substances were isolated by conventional alkaline extraction and acid precipitation methods from a peatland in the Lower Lusatia region (Germany). Using a sandwich ELISA technique for TNF-α de- termination the results show that neither humic nor fulvic acids develop a pro-inflammatory effect in non-stimulated cells. In LPS-stimulated cells, however, low humic acid concentrations cause a significant increase of TNF-α release which is reversed at higher humic acid concentrations (anti-inflammatory effect). Fulvic acids did not activate LPS- induced cellular defence reactions. Basing on the results the necessity of pre-examining the TNF-α releasing potential of humic substances intended for cosmetic, body care and medical use should be considered.