Acacetin Ameliorates Experimental Colitis in Mice via Inhibiting Macrophage Inflammatory Response and Regulating the Composition of Gut Microbiota

Abstract

Acacetin, a natural dietary flavonoid abundantly found in acacia honey and citrus fruits, reportedly exerts several biological effects, such as anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidative effects. However, the effects of acacetin on intestinal inflammation remain unclear. We sought to investigate whether acacetin ameliorates inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in mice with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC). Our results suggest that acacetin alleviates the clinical symptoms of DSS-induced colitis, as determined by body weight loss, diarrhea, colon shortening, inflammatory infiltration, and histological injury. Further studies showed that acacetin remarkably inhibited both the macrophage inflammatory response in vitro and levels of inflammatory mediators in mice with colitis. In addition, some features of the gut microbiota were disordered in mice with DSS-induced colitis, as evidenced by a significant reduction in microbiota diversity and a marked shift in bacterial profiles. However, acacetin treatment improved this imbalance and restored gut microbiota to levels that were similar to those in normal mice. In conclusion, our work presents evidence that acacetin attenuates DSS-induced colitis in mice, at least in part, by inhibiting inflammation and regulating the intestinal microbiota.

Berberine Improves Irinotecan-Induced Intestinal Mucositis Without Impairing the Anti-colorectal Cancer Efficacy of Irinotecan by Inhibiting Bacterial β-glucuronidase

“…Berberine treatment attenuated the CPT11-induced body weight loss. Furthermore, colon shortening was identified as an indirect symptom, thus indicating the intensity of mucosal inflammation ( Ren et al, 2020 ). As anticipated, the CPT11-induced colon shortening was remarkable, but was significantly mitigated by berberine treatment ( Figures 1B,C ).…”

“…The number of goblet cells was determined by AB/PAS staining. Histological injury was evaluated as a combined score of inflammatory cell infiltration (score 0–3) and mucosal damage (score 0–3), as previously described ( Ren et al, 2020 ).…”

Food and Food Groups in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): The Design of the Groningen Anti-Inflammatory Diet (GrAID)

“…Acacia honey and citrus fruit contain a bioactive constituent flavonoid called acacetin. Oral administration of acacetin increased the production of iNOS, COX-2, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-1β in mice with DSS-induced colitis [223]. Besides, in vitro acacetin led to a significant decrease of macrophage infiltration, which might also enhance its therapeutic effect in IBD.…”

Integrated bioinformatics and network pharmacology to identify the therapeutic target and molecular mechanisms of Huangqin decoction on ulcerative Colitis

“…Quercetin has an antioxidant effect, suppresses proinflammatory mediators' release and expression of inflammatory proteins 37 . Acacetin by inhibiting inflammation and regulating the intestinal microbiota in DSS-induced colitis mice 38 . Wogonin is quickly converted into baicalin and various flavones in metabolism and may act in the PI3K-Akt pathway, AMPK pathways, and inhibition of telomerase activity 39 .…”