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Research Article

Apigenin inhibits allergen-induced airway inflammation and switches immune response in a murine model of asthma

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Pages 364-370 | Received 16 Aug 2009, Accepted 08 Oct 2009, Published online: 22 Jan 2010
 

Abstract

Many flavonoids were demonstrated to posses the antiallergic effect. Here we detected whether apigenin, a flavonoid, can attenuate allergen-induced airway inflammation and what is the possible mechanism in a murine model of asthma. Apigenin decreased the degree of the inflammatory cell infiltration, airway hyperresponsiveness, and total immunoglobulin E levels compared with the ovalbumin group. In addition, apigenin triggered the switching of the immune response to allergens toward a T-helper type 1 (Th1) profile. Our data clearly demonstrated that apigenin exhibits an anti-inflammatory activity in a murine asthma model, and can switch the immune response to allergens toward the Th1 profile.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Jiangsu Province Key Lab of Immunology Medicine for technical assistance and Dr Xiao-Hui Ji for helpful advice.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by grants from the Key Subject of Project “135” of Jiangsu Province 20013102 (KSY), China.

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