Article ID: 2790
Aim: Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a common vegetable grown in Okinawa that has also been used recently in medicine for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and dys-lipidemia. Among Bitter melon extracts compounds, we focused on an extract known as momordin in the present study, to examine its effect on peroxisome-proliferator activated-receptor (PPAR) δ (also called PPARδ in rodents) expression and promoter activity of the human PPARδ gene.
Methods: A human PPARδ promoter-reporter plasmid was made as a template from a BAC CLONE (RPCI-11C) containing a -3076 bp (BglI site) +74 bp (EcoRI site) sequence. Luciferase assay of PPARδ promoter activity was performed using HepG2 cells.
Results: 10 and 25 nM Momordin significantly increased the expression of PPARδ mRNA 1.5-fold (relative to the control). Moreover, 10 and 25 nM Momordin significantly increased PPARδ promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner, reaching more than 1.5-fold relative to the control.
Conclusion: Our present data obtained through successful cloning of the PPARδ promoter demon-strate that PPARδ production and activation are upregulated through PPARδ promoter activity fol-lowing momordin treatment.