Resokaempferol-mediated anti-inflammatory effects on activated macrophages via the inhibition of JAK2/STAT3, NF-κB and JNK/p38 MAPK signaling pathways

The excessive or prolonged production of inflammatory mediators can result in numerous chronic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer. Therefore, for many inflammatory-related diseases, pharmaceutical intervention is required to restrain the excessive release of such inflammatory mediators. Novel therapeutics and mechanistic insight are sought for the management of chronic inflammatory diseases. Resokaempferol (RES) is a type of flavonoid recently reported to demonstrate anti-cancer properties. However, the anti-inflammatory capacity of RES has not been studied to date. Therefore, this study investigated whether RES is capable of suppressing the inflammatory response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages and the mechanism by which this is achieved. We found that RES attenuated the LPS-induced production of nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), interleukin (IL)-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and IL-6. RES also inhibited the nuclear translocation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 and reduced the LPS-mediated phosphorylation of Janus kinase (JAK) 2 and STAT3 at the sites of Ser727 and Tyr705. RES also inhibited the activation of NF-κB and JNK/p38 MAPK signaling pathways in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. Additionally, RES inhibited the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway in exogenous IL-6-activated RAW264.7 macrophages. We conclude that RES inhibits the inflammatory response in activated macrophages by blocking the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway by both LPS and IL-6 signaling.