In vitro investigations on the effect of peat humic substances on inflammation
in-vitro Grade C 2008 Open access
Authors: Klöcking, R., Junek, R., Kleiner, C., Schubert, R., Schoenherr, J.I.
Journal: Proceedings of the 13th International Peat Congress (Peat Balneology section) : 300-302
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Key Findings
- Black peat humic acids and brown-water fulvic-acid-like humic substances (Altteich Peatland, Germany) were tested for TNF-alpha release in human U937 cells
- Neither substance triggered a pro-inflammatory effect in unstimulated cells
- In LPS-stimulated cells, low humic acid concentrations caused a significant dose-dependent increase in TNF-alpha release, which reversed to a decrease at higher concentrations — a bimodal effect
- Fulvic acid did not enhance TNF-alpha release at any tested concentration
- Both substances showed low cytotoxicity across the concentration range tested
An in-vitro study testing black peat humic acid and fulvic-acid-like humic substances on inflammatory cytokine release in human immune cells. It establishes a bimodal dose-response: low concentrations of humic acid amplify an LPS-triggered inflammatory signal, while higher concentrations suppress it — consistent with humic acid acting as an activator of cellular defense at low dose and an anti-inflammatory agent at higher dose. Fulvic acid did not show the low-dose pro-inflammatory activation at all. This is strong corroborating primary evidence for the bimodal humic-acid/TNF-alpha effect, closely related to a still-unsourced 2009 journal paper by an overlapping author group testing the same mechanism.
humic-acidfulvic-acidtnf-alphainflammationbimodalin-vitro