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

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.

Keywords::

• Apigenin
• asthma
• GATA-3
• immune response
• T-bet

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.