Anti‐inflammatory Effects of Cocoa Procyanidins

Abstract

Inflammation, as evaluated by increased inflammatory cytokines and other markers, represents a link between obesity and its comorbidities. Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is a procyanidin‐rich food with putative anti‐inflammatory effects; however, the mechanism of action remains to be fully elucidated. The objective of the present study is to determine the effects of cocoa procyanidins (CPs) with varying degree of polymerization (DP) on inflammatory markers related to eicosanoid metabolism and cytokine production using purified enzymes and cultured RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells. CPs with DP ≥7 dose‐dependently inhibited purified phospholipase A2 (IC50 =3.2 μg/mL) and cyclooxygenase‐2 (IC50= 57.7 μg/mL) in vitro, and significantly decreased prostaglandin E2 production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐stimulated macrophages. Pre‐treatment of macrophages with CP octamer (50 μM) significantly suppressed secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor‐α (70%), interleukin‐6 (100%), monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1 (50%) compared to LPS‐stimulated controls. These results demonstrate the anti‐inflammatory effects of CPs and provide potential mechanistic biomarkers to be further tested in obese subjects under inflammatory conditions. This study was supported in part by a grant from Hershey Foods and by NIH Grant AT004678.Grant Funding Source: NIH Grant AT004678 and Hershey Foods