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Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Apigenin in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammatory in Acute Lung Injury by Suppressing COX-2 and NF-kB Pathway

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Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the possible mechanisms responsible for the anti-inflammatory effects of apigenin lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory in acute lung injury. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of apigenin on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice and the possible mechanisms involved in this protection were investigated. Pretreatment with apigenin prior to the administration of intratracheal LPS significantly induced a decrease in lung wet weight/dry weight ratio in total leukocyte number and neutrophil percent in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and in IL-6 and IL-1β, the tumor neurosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the BALF. These results showed that anti-inflammatory effects of apigenin against the LPS-induced ALI may be due to its ability of primary inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene expression and nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) gene expression of lung. The results presented here suggest that the protective mechanism of apigenin may be attributed partly to decreased production of proinflammatory cytokines through the inhibition of COX-2 and NF-kB activation. The results support that use of apigenin is beneficial in the treatment of ALI.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Correspondence to Tianhua Yan.

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Wang, J., Liu, YT., Xiao, L. et al. Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Apigenin in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammatory in Acute Lung Injury by Suppressing COX-2 and NF-kB Pathway. Inflammation 37, 2085–2090 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-014-9942-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-014-9942-x

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