Ginsenoside rg1

Human renal tubular epithelial cell line HK-2 was obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, USA), and was cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium/Nutrient Mixture F-12 (DMEM-F12, 3:1, Gibco-BRL, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Gibco-BRL) in a humidified 5% CO₂ atmosphere at 37°C.
Ginsenoside Rg1 with purity greater than 98% (National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, China) were dissolved in DMSO (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) and mixed with the medium so that the final concentration of the vehicle was less than 0.1%. To analyze the functional impacts of Ginsenoside Rg1 following LPS stimulation, cells were incubated with various doses of Ginsenoside Rg1 (0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 μM) in the presence or absence of 5 μg/mL LPS (from Escherichia coli O111:B4, Sigma-Aldrich) for 24 h (11 (link)).

The chemical standards of ginsenoside Rb₁, ginsenoside Rb₂, ginsenoside Rc, ginsenoside Rd, ginsenoside Re, and ginsenoside Rg₁ were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). LC-MS grade solvents, including acetonitrile and methanol, were procured from J.T. Baker, Inc. (Phillipsburg, NJ, USA). Triple deionized water (Millipore Bedford, MA, USA) was prepared for all aqueous solutions.

_DL-glyceraldehyde dimer, adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), β-nicotinamide bovine serum albumin (BSA), and quercetin were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Human recombinant AR (0.4 units) was purchased from Wako Chemicals (Osaka, Japan). Sodium azide was purchased from Junsei Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan). Ginsenoside Rb2 (>95%), ginsenoside Rb3 (>95%), protopanaxadiol (purity >85%), ginsenoside Rf (>95%), ginsenoside Rc (>98%), protopanaxatriol (>96%), ginsenoside Re (>97%), (20S) ginsenoside Rg3 (>98%), ginsenoside Rd (>95%), ginsenoside Rg1(>90%), ginsenoside Rh2 (>97%), compound K (>96%), sodium hydroxide, ginsenoside Rb1 (>98%), quercetin (>95%), ginsenoside Rh1(>90%), glucose, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and sorbitol were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Co. (St Louis, MO, USA). (20R) ginsenoside Rg3 (purity > 96%), (20S) ginsenoside Rg2 (>90%), ginsenoside Ra1 (>96%), ginsenoside Ra2 (>98%), ginsenoside Rs1 (>97%), ginsenoside Rs2 (>90%), (20R) ginsenoside Rg2 (>99%) were purchased from Selleckchem Co. (Cedarlane, ON, Canada). Unless otherwise noted, all additional chemicals and solvents were reagent grade and purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germania), Fluka (Buchs, Switzerland), Duksan Pure Chemical Co. (Ansan, South Korea), or Sigma-Aldrich Co.