In Vitro Assessment of Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Apigenin on Renal Cell Inflammation

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate in vitro effect of apigenin on anti - and pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) levels in an in vitro model of renal cell inflammation induced with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Methods: For the in vitro renal cell inflammation model, the African green monkey kidney cell line (Vero) was used. Four groups as NC (without any treatment), LPS (Vero cells treated with 10 pg/mL of LPS for 4 hours), API (Vero cells treated with 5 pg/mL of apigenin for 12 hours), and LPS+API (Vero cells treated with 5 pg/mL of apigenin for 12 hours + 10 pg/mL of LPS for 4 hours) was formed. The non-cytotoxic dose of apigenin in Vero cells was evaluated by a cell count test. IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta concentrations in the cell culture medium were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. All analyses were performed in four repetitions.Results: IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta concentrations of the LPS group increased compared to NC, API, and LPS+API groups (p<0.05). We found that treatment with apigenin led to significant attenuation in the LPS-induced secretion of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta in the Vero cell line.Conclusion: Our findings showed that apigenin significantly reduced LPS-induced IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta formations in Vero cells. Taken together, these results suggest that apigenin may be a therapeutic candidate for relieving inflammatory renal cell damage. These results need to be supported by in vivo trials and clinical applications.