Altered ganglioside patterns accompany the Anti-inflammatory activity of luteolin in Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated Raw 264.7

Abstract

Flavonoids have a range of biological activities, including anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer activities, as shown by in vitro studies. In this study, we investigated whether luteolin can be applied to the suppression of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammatory responses in murine macrophages. Luteolin was found to reduce nitric oxide (NO) production from LPS-stimulated Raw 264.7 cells. moreover, 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 blockage of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation and the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase famaily, extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 MAP kinase. Furthermore, pre-treatment with luteolin reduced ganglioside expression levels and inhibited GT1b expression 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.