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.
Highlights
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a major form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterized by continuous and diffuse inflammatory lesions of the colorectal mucosa
No significant differences in body weight and colon length were observed between the control group and acacetin treatment group (Figures 1A–D)
Acacetin (50 mg/kg) produced the best phenotypes, and the 50 mg/kg acacetin treatment group was applied for subsequent experimental analyses
Summary
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a major form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterized by continuous and diffuse inflammatory lesions of the colorectal mucosa. In developing countries with large populations, the incidence of UC increases each year, which causes considerable mental stress and brings an economic burden to the affected patients (Kaplan, 2015; Ananthakrishnan et al, 2018). Several treatments have been developed for UC, including glucocorticoids, sulfasalazine, and immunosuppressive drugs (Hu et al, 2019). The clinical application of these drugs in long-term treatment is limited by their adverse effects and the high recurrence rates observed, which necessitates the development of novel therapies or complementary and alternative medicine for IBD
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