The structural diversity and localization of cell surface glycosphingolipids (GSLs), including gangliosides, in glycolipid-enriched microdomains (GEMs) render them ideally suited to play important roles in mediating cell recognition, adhesion, interactions, receptor function, and signaling. Gangliosides, sialic acid-containing GSLs, are most abundant in the nerve tissues. The quantity and expression pattern of gangliosides in brain change drastically throughout development and these changes are mainly regulated through stage-specific expression of glycosyltransferase genes. However, roles of gangliosides in neuronal differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is unclear. We previously demonstrated for the first time that the glycosyltransferase genes during mouse embryogenesis. So, we investigated the effects of ganglioside gene in differentiation of adipose-derived MSCs (AD-MSCs). GM2 and GD3 ganglioside synthease were increased during neuronal differentiation of AD-MSCs. This study showed that the differentiation of neuronal marker was decreased on the first step of ganglioside synthase UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase(UGCG) and knock downed GM2 sythase (B4GALNT1). The result of suggested that GM2 and GD3 might be important roles in the neural differentiation of mini-pig AD-MSCs. This work was carried out with the funding of the cooperative research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development[Project No. PJ00999901], the Rural Development Adiministration, the KRIBB Research Initiative Program[KGM4251622].

Flavonoids have a range of biological activities, including anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer activities, as demonstrated by in vitro studies. In this study, we investigated whether luteolin can be applied to suppression of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammatory responses in murine macrophages. Luteolin was found to reduce nitric oxide (NO) production in LPS-stimulated Raw 264.7 cells. In addition, expression of inducible nitric oxide synthetase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrotic factor-α (TNF-α) at the mRNA and protein levels were decreased. These inhibitory effects were found to be caused by the blockade of nuclear factor kappa-light- chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation and phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase family, extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38 MAP kinase. In addition, pre-treatment with luteolin resulted in reduced ganglioside expression levels and inhibited expression of GT1b in Raw 264.7 cells. On the basis of these observations, we suggest that luteolin has potential as an anti-inflammatory drug candidate, and ganglioside GT1b may play a role in the inflammatory process.