Fig 2: AU regulated the concentrations of oxidative stress-related factors in the serum of OP mice. AU decreased the concentrations of (A) ROS and increased the concentrations of (B) SOD and (C) CAT. Data are expressed as the means ± SEMs (n = 6) and were analysed using a one-way ANOVA. #p < 0.05 and ###p < 0.001 versus control mice; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 versus OP mice. CTRL: control; Dex: dexamethasone; E2: oestradiol; AU: aucubin.

Fig 3: Ethanolic extract of Centella asiatica enhanced SOD1 and SOD3 mRNA expressions. (a, b) The representative figures of SOD1, SOD2, and SOD3 mRNA expressions according to the RT-PCR. (c) The representative images of SOD1 protein expression (magnification 400x; scale bar 100 µm). *: <0.01 vs. control, ?: <0.01 vs. DM1 and <0.05 vs. DM1, and #: <0.01 vs. DM2.

Fig 4: Nrf2 signaling is involved in the improvement of immune function during WNQP-mediated inhibition of tumor growth. WNQP strongly enhanced the expression levels of Nrf2, HO-1, HO-2 and SOD-1 in the spleen tissues of BALB/c mice bearing (A, B) HepG2- and (C, D) SMMC-7721-xenograft tumors. (E, F) In Nrf2-siRNA-transfected primary cultured spleen cells, WNQP-induced increase in the levels of Nrf2, HO-1, HO-2 and SOD-1 were abolished. Quantitative protein expression data were normalized to the corresponding GAPDH levels, and the average fold changes in band intensity are marked. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 3). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 versus the control group.

Fig 5: AU suppressed the receptor activator of nuclear factor-?B ligand (RANKL)-induced differentiation of RAW264.7 cells to osteoclasts. (A) AU decreased the percentage of numbers and area of TRAP-positive RANKL-exposed RAW264.7 cells (200×) (Scale Bar: 50 µm). Data are expressed as the means ± SEMs (n = 6) and were analysed using a one-way ANOVA. ###p < 0.001 versus control cells; **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 versus RANKL-induced differentiated cells. (B) In RANKL-exposed RAW264.7 cells, AU increased the expression levels of COL I, OCN, OPG, Nrf2, CAT, HO-2, SOD-1 and SOD-2, and decreased the expression levels of TRAP5, NFATc1 and CTSK. The quantitative expression of each protein was normalised to ß-actin and is presented as the fold-expression compared with the expression in control cells (n = 6). CTRL: control; AU: aucubin.