Protective Effect of Leaf Essential Oil from Cinnamomum osmophloeum Kanehira on Endotoxin-Induced Intestinal Injury in Mice Associated with Suppressed Local Expression of Molecules in the Signaling Pathways of TLR4 and NLRP3: e0120700

• Published in: PloS one 2015-03, Vol.10 (3)
• Main Authors: Lee, Shih-Chieh, Hsu, Jie-Sheng, Li, Chien-Chun, Chen, Ke-Ming, Liu, Cheng-Tzu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cinnamomum
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120700

Endotoxin is a potent microbial mediator implicated in sepsis. We investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of leaf essential oil from Cinnamomum osmophloeum Kanehira (CO) of the linalool chemotype on endotoxin-injected mice. Mice were administered CO or vehicle by gavage before endotoxin injection and were killed 12 h after injection. Neither growth nor the organ weight or tissue weight to body weight ratio was affected by CO treatment. CO significantly lowered peripheral levels of tumor necrosis factor- alpha , interleukin (IL)-1 beta , IL-18, interferon- gamma , and nitric oxide and inhibited the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation primary response gene (88), myeloid differentiation factor 2, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-recruitment domain (ASC), caspase-1, and Nod-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3). CO also inhibited the activation of nuclear factor-[kgreen]B, inhibited the activity of caspase-1 in small intestine, and ameliorated intestinal edema. Our data provide strong evidence for a protective effect of CO of the linalool chemotype in the endotoxin-induced systemic inflammatory response in close association with suppression of the TLR4 and NLRP3 signaling pathways in intestine.