Discovery of Se-containing flavone in Se-enriched green tea and the potential application value in the immune regulation

• Published in: Food chemistry 2022-11, Vol.394, p.133468-133468, Article 133468
• Main Authors: Fan, Zibian, Jia, Wei, Du, An, Xia, Zengrun, Kang, Jie, Xue, Liang, Sun, Yujiao, Shi, Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Inflammatory injury; RAW 264.7 macrophage; Se-containing flavone; Se-enriched green tea; Selenium
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133468

•HSeO3− is combined with alcohol hydroxyl of flavone by esterification.•Se-containing flavone has efficient repression on LPS-induced inflammation model.•Se-containing flavone can activate the classical signaling pathway of IL-6.•Se-containing flavone can increase release of IL-10 and prevent inflammatory injury.•Se-containing flavone has potential value in immune regulation. Selenium (Se)-enriched green tea has been recognized as a possible source of supplemental Se, while the structural and physiological activities of Se-containing flavone are still unclear. In this study, a Se-containing flavone was isolated from Se-enriched green tea by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) and characterized through UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap, FT-IR and NMR. Results proved that HSeO3− can be combined with the alcohol hydroxyl of 2-phenylchromone in flavone and the content of Se-containing flavone in tea was 15690.4 μg L−1. Additionally, Se-containing flavone can effectively inhibit the production of nitric oxide (NO), and downregulate expression of TNF-α and IL-6. Compared with regular flavone extracted from green tea (43.24 pg mL−1), release of IL-10 was higher in Se-containing flavone group (53.37 pg mL−1), indicating that Se-containing flavone played an important role in the process of severe inflammatory injury. The results indicated that Se-containing flavone was an attractive natural ingredient for developing novel functional foods.