Dietary flavonoids, natural compounds that have antiinflammatory properties, have been linked to beneficial effects in cancer and diseases such as arthritis. In one study, flavonoid intakewas inversely related to dementia. Saebyeol Jang et al. investigatedhow luteolin—a flavonoid found in celery and green pepper—acts on microglia in mice to reduce inflammation. The brain is immune-privileged, however, and microglia provide its main immunological defense. Using levels of the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 as a generalized measure of inflammation, the authors studied primary mouse microglia and the immortalized microglia line BV-2 in cell cultures. Treatment with bacterial lipopolysaccharide, which induces inflammation, stimulated IL-6 production that was reduced similarly in both cell types and eliminated at high doses.
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