Effects of dietary curcumin and rutin on colonic inflammation and gene expression in mdr1a-/- mice, a model of IBD. Mus musculus

Damage of the intestinal epithelial barrier by xenobiotics or reactive oxygen species and a dysregulated immune response are both factors involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Curcumin and rutin are polyphenolic compounds known to have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, but their mechanism(s) of action are yet to be fully elucidated. Mdr1a-/- mice spontaneously develop intestinal inflammation, predominantly in the colon, with pathology similar to IBD, so this mouse model is relevant for studying diet-gene interactions and potential effects of foods on remission or development of IBD. This study tested whether the addition of curcumin or rutin to the diet would alleviate colonic inflammation in mdr1a-/- mice. Using whole-genome microarrays, the effect of dietary curcumin on gene expression in colon tissue was also investigated. Twelve mice were randomly assigned to each of three diets; control (AIN-76A), control + 0.2% curcumin or control + 0.1% rutin and monitored from the age of 7 to 24 weeks. Curcumin, but not rutin, significantly reduced histological signs of colonic inflammation in mdr1a-/- mice. Microarray and pathway analyses suggested that the effect of dietary curcumin on colon inflammation could be via an up-regulation of xenobiotic metabolism and a down-regulation of pro-inflammatory pathways probably mediated by PXR and PPARalpha activation of RXR. These results reveal the potential of global gene expression and pathway analyses to study and better understand the effect of foods in colonic inflammation. Keywords: Colonic inflammation, gene expression, curcumin, rutin, genome-wide microarrays Overall design: Twelve mice were randomly assigned to each of three diets; control (AIN-76A), control + 0.2% curcumin or control + 0.1% rutin and monitored from the age of 7 to 24 weeks. As only curcumin significantly reduced colonic HIS, comparison of the gene expression levels in colon was carried out using total RNA from colon tissue of four mdr1a-/- mice from the control group (high HIS) and four mdr1a-/- mice from the curcumin group (low HIS). A reference design with eight arrays was used for this comparison, where each individual RNA sample was hybridized in the array with the reference RNA, totalizing 4 biological replicates per treatment.