Abstract
Flavonoids demonstrate a remarkable spectrum of biochemical activities which critically focuses on the immune and inflammatory response, including direct inhibitory effects on tyrosine and serine-threonine protein kinases, phospholipases, cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases (rev. in Middleton Jr. and Kandaswami (1992)). However, our laboratory recently demonstrated that flavonoids can also exert anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting cytokine induced gene expression (Gerritsen et al., 1995). In this earlier study we reported that apigenin and certain structurally related hydroxyflavones inhibited tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1 (IL-1), lipopolysaccharide, and interferon-γ (IFNγ) induced expression of the adhesion molecules intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and E-selectin. The effects of apigenin were reversible, occurred in the first 30 minutes of coincubation with the cytokine, and appeared to be at the level of transcription. Additionally, apigenin inhibited the cytokine induced upregulation of several other inflammatory genes including IL-6, IL-8, and cy-clooxygenase-2.
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Gerritsen, M.E. (1998). Flavonoids: Inhibitors of Cytokine Induced Gene Expression. In: Manthey, J.A., Buslig, B.S. (eds) Flavonoids in the Living System. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 439. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5335-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5335-9_14
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