Attenuation of allergic responses following treatment with resveratrol in anaphylactic models and IgE-mediated mast cells.

Resveratrol exists widely in plant species and has a variety of anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. However, there have been few reports regarding its anti-food allergic activity. In this study, we demonstrated that resveratrol (isolated from Abies georgei) could decrease the release of ß-hexosaminidase and histamine in rat basophilic leukemia-2H3 cells. Resveratrol was not only found to suppress the development of diarrhea, up-regulate the rectal temperature of ovalbumin-allergic mice, and decrease the serum level of specific immunoglobulin E, mouse mast cell protease-1 and histamine, but also found to decrease the population of dendritic cells, B cells and mast cells of ovalbumin -allergic mice in the spleen or mesenteric lymph node. Furthermore, resveratrol inhibited the release of ß-hexosaminidase and histamine in bone marrow-derived cells and alleviated mast cell-mediated passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reactions. These findings indicated that resveratrol isolated from Abies georgei might have the potential to alleviate food hypersensitivity or allergic disease.

Tomato WRKY transcriptional factor SlDRW1 is required for disease resistance against Botrytis cinerea and tolerance to oxidative stress.

WRKY proteins comprise a large family of transcription factors that play important roles in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses; however, only a few of tomato WRKYs have been studied for their biological functions. In the present study, we identified a Botrytis cinerea-responsive WRKY gene SlDRW1 (Solanum lycopersicumdefense-related WRKY1) from tomato. SlDRW1 is a nucleus localized protein with transactivation activity in yeast. Expression of SlDRW1 was significantly induced by B. cinerea, leading to 10-13 folds of increase than that in the mock-inoculated plants but not by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000. Silencing of SlDRW1 resulted in increased severity of disease caused by B. cinerea, but did not affect the phenotype of disease caused by Pst DC3000. In addition, silencing of SlDRW1 also resulted in decreased tolerance against oxidative stress but did not affect drought stress tolerance. Furthermore, silencing of SlDRW1 attenuated defense response such as expression of defense-related genes after infection by B. cinerea. Our results demonstrate that SlDRW1 is a positive regulator of defense response in tomato against B. cinerea and oxidative stress.