It was documented that pomegranate has anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we investigated a direct effect of pomegranate juice and its polyphenols on macrophage inflammatory phenotype.
This study indicates that pomegranate juice consumption may inhibit the progressive proin- flammatory state in the aorta along atherosclerosis development with aging, due to a switch in macrophage phenotype from proinflammatory M1to anti-inflammatory M2.
RESEACH TITLE: Pomegranate juice polyphenols induce a phenotypic switch in macrophage polarization favoring a M2 anti-inflammatory state
COUNTRY: Israel
CONDUCTED BY: The Lipid Research Laboratory, Technion Faculty of Medicine, The Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, and Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
PUBLISHED ON: BioFactors
RESEACH: It was documented that pomegranate has anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we investigated a direct effect of pomegranate juice and its polyphenols on macrophage inflammatory phenotype.
In vitro, pomegranate juice and its major polyphenols dosedependently attenuated macrophage response to M1 proin- flammatory activation in J774.A1 macrophage-like cell line. This was evidenced by a significant decrease in TNFa and IL-6 secretion in response to stimulation by IFNc and Lipopolysaccharide. In addition, pomegranate juice and punicalagin dose-dependently promoted the macrophages toward a M2 anti-inflammatory phenotype, as determined by a significant increase in the spontaneous secretion of IL-10. In mice, supplementation with dietary pomegranate juice substantially inhibited the M2 to M1macrophage phenotypic shift associated with age, toward a favorable antiinflammatory M2 phenotype
.This effect was also reflected in the mice atherosclerotic plaques, as evaluated by the distinct expression of arginase isoforms. pomegranate juice consumption inhibited the increment of arginase II (Arg II, M1) mRNA expression during aging, and maintained the levels of Arg I (M2) expression similar to those in young mice aorta.
This study demonstrates, for the first time, that pomegranate polyphenols directly suppress macrophage inflammatory responses and promote M1 to M2 switch in macrophage phenotype.
Furthermore, this study indicates that pomegranate juice consumption may inhibit the progressive proin- flammatory state in the aorta along atherosclerosis development with aging, due to a switch in macrophage phenotype from proinflammatory M1to anti-inflammatory M2.
YEAR: 2015