Anti-inflammatory effects of anthocyanins from black soybean seed coat on the keratinocytes and ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat skin flaps.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a phenomenon that occurs when tissues are subjected to ischemia for a variable period of time, and then reperfused. Inflammatory reaction has been implicated as one of the most important mechanism of ischemia-reperfusion injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of anthocyanins from black soybean seed coat on keratinocytes in vitro and ischemia-reperfusion injury in vivo. We investigated the inhibition, by anthocyanins, of the expression of various inflammatory genes associated with ischemia-reperfusion injury in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha-treated (TNF-α) immortalized epidermal keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT). We also investigated the effects of anthocyanins on the survival of skin flaps after ischemia-reperfusion injury in the rats. According to Western blot analysis and a luciferase activity assay, anthocyanins inhibited TNF-α-induced intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) levels through the NF-κB-dependent pathway. Administration of anthocyanins (50 and 100 mg/kg) significantly improved the flap area survival in the 10-hour ischemic model from 62% to 74.5% and 83%, respectively (P = 0.001). The related cytokines in skin flap also changed as the same pattern as in vitro. Our results indicate that anthocyanins from black soybean seed coat had anti-inflammatory effects on the HaCaT cell line and increase the survival of skin flaps through anti-inflammatory properties against ischemia-reperfusion injury.