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β-carotene inhibits MAPKs signaling pathways on rat colonic epithelial cells to attenuate TNF-α-induced intestinal inflammation and injury

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Abstract

This experiment successfully isolated the rat colonic epithelial cells and established a TNF-α-induced intestinal inflammation model. Western Blot was used to detect the related protein expression levels of the MAPKs signaling pathway. QPCR technology was used to detect the expression of aquaporins, intestinal mucosal repair factor, and inflammatory factors. The results show that 25 μM β-carotene pretreatment at 24 h can inhibit MAPKs signaling pathway activated by TNF-α, change the relative mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines, intestinal mucosal repair factors, and aquaporins, and the phosphorylated protein expression of p38, ERK, and NF-κB were attenuated to reduce inflammatory damage. After inhibiting p38 and ERK, the effect of β-carotene was reduced significantly (P < 0.05). In conclusion, β-carotene can alleviate the abnormal expression of aquaporins caused by inflammation through the MAPKs signaling pathway. This is for β-carotene as a functional nutrient that provides new insights.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672511).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China

    Yang Song & Xin Zheng

  2. Department of Nutrition and Food, School of Public Health, Beihua University, Jilin, Jilin Province, China

    Lingyu Zhu

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  1. Yang Song
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YS and LZ co-designed the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Xin Zheng.

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This experiment was approved by the Animal Ethical Committee of Jilin Agricultural University (no. 201705001).

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Song, Y., Zhu, L. & Zheng, X. β-carotene inhibits MAPKs signaling pathways on rat colonic epithelial cells to attenuate TNF-α-induced intestinal inflammation and injury. Cell Biochem Biophys 82, 291–302 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-023-01202-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-023-01202-8

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