Enhancement of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of flavonoid primuletin in DSS induced colitis in C57BL/6 mice

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a syndrome comprising of Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease characterized by rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, progressive weight loss and rarely infections. There are lot of drugs like corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, antibiotics to treat the disease, yet no effective treatment for the disease is available apart from treating symptomatically. Flavonoids especially Primuletin was selected as test drug to prove its anti-ulcerative colitis activity and to establish it as an effective drug for treating IBD. Materials and methods: The in-vitro activity of Primuletin was investigated against RAW 246.7 cell lines in DMEM medium. The in-vitro cytotoxicity of the drug was estimated using MTT assay and the in-vitro estimation of inflammatory markers (TNFα, IL-6) was performed using indirect Elisa. Acute oral toxicity studies were performed to determine the toxicity of Primuletin in swiss albino mice. In-vivo anti-ulcerative colitis activity of Primuletin was investigated in DSS induced IBD in C57BL/6 and the results were compared with the standard drug. Results: Primuletin treatment significantly lowered the inflammatory markers in-vitro. In DSS Primuletin treatment significantly prevented drastic variations in the body weight of mice.