Purple carrot anthocyanins suppress lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in the co-culture of intestinal Caco-2 and macrophage RAW264.7 cells.

This study was designed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of purple carrot anthocyanins (PCA) with respect to gut inflammation, simulated in a co-culture system consisting of intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells and RAW264.7 macrophages. The obtained results indicated that PCA extract down-regulates the mRNA expression of proinflammatory interleukins Il-1β (↓91%) and Il-6 (↓69%) as well as inflammatory mediators, such as cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNos), in lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW264.7 cells. The decrease in the generation of prostaglandin E2 (↓48%) and nitric oxide (↓26%) was observed as a result of the inhibition of Cox-2 (↓25%) and iNos (↓12%) mRNA expressions, respectively. Moreover, the PCA reduced mRNA expression (↓40%) and production (↓17%) of IL-8 in intestinal cells. The anti-inflammatory effect of PCA was contributed to the protection of the intestinal barrier, which was disrupted upon the stimulation of macrophages. These findings may provide preliminary justification for the use of PCA in further studies focused on the prevention and therapy supporting the conventional treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.