Apigenin-7-glycoside prevents LPS-induced acute lung injury via downregulation of oxidative enzyme expression and protein activation through inhibition of MAPK phosphorylation.

Apigenin-7-glycoside (AP7Glu) with multiple biological activities is a flavonoid that is currently prescribed to treat inflammatory diseases such as upper respiratory infections. Recently, several studies have shown that its anti-inflammatory activities have been strongly linked to the inhibition of secretion of pro-inflammatory proteins, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOs) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) induced through phosphorylation nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathways. Additionally, inflammation, which can decrease the activities of antioxidative enzymes (AOEs) is also observed in these studies. At the same time, flavonoids are reported to promote the activities of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) decreased by LPS. The purpose of this study was to assess these theories in a series of experiments on the suppressive effects of AP7Glu based on LPS-induced nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 macrophages in vitro and acute lung injury in mice in vivo. After six hours of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, pulmonary pathological, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, total polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) cells, cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and AOEs, are all affected and changed. Meanwhile, our data revealed that AP7Glu not only did significantly inhibit the LPS-enhanced inflammatory activity in lung, but also exhibited anti-inflammatory effect through the MAPK and inhibitor NF-κB (IκB) pathways.