Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Oxidative Properties of Dried Plum Polyphenols in RAW264.7 Macrophage Cells

This thesis presents the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of dried plum polyphenols in RAW264.7 macrophages. We hypothesize that dried plum polyphenols may benefit in diseases of chronic inflammatory origin. Chronic inflammation is characterized by accumulation of macrophages at injury site and macrophages start the inflammatory cascade. Polyphenols have been found to possess strong anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. To substantiate this assumption, we tested the chlorogenic acid rich dried plum polyphenols using RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Macrophages express nitric oxide (NO) and cyclooxygense-2 (COX-2) dependent prostaglandins under chronic inflammatory conditions. RAW264.7 macrophage were stimulated with 1 µg/ml of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce inflammation and treated with different doses of polyphenols (0, 0.1,1,10,100 and 1000 µg/ml), for 12 hrs. Polyphenols at a dose of 1000 µg/ml of medium was able to significantly reduce the NO production by 43% compared with LPS stimulated cells only. Moreover, LPS (10 ng/ml) induced expression of COX-2 was significantly reduced by 100 and 1000 µg/ml polyphenols. To investigate the anti-oxidant activity of polyphenols, macrophage cells were stimulated with 100 µM/ml of FeSO4 + 1mM/ml of H2O2 to induce lipid peroxidation. Polyphenols at a dose of 1000 µg/ml showed 32% reduction in malondialdehyde production. Conclusively, our study indicated that dried plum polyphenols are potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative agents and can have implications in prevention of diseases of chronic inflammatory origin including bone loss.