Suppression of Inflammatory Cytokines Expression with Bitter Melon (Momordica Charantia) in TNBS-instigated Ulcerative Colitis

Asli Semiz; Ozden Ozgun Acar; Hulya Cetin; Gurkan Semiz; Alaattin Sen

doi:10.2478/jtim-2020-0027

Suppression of Inflammatory Cytokines Expression with Bitter Melon (Momordica Charantia) in TNBS-instigated Ulcerative Colitis

J Transl Int Med. 2020 Sep 25;8(3):177-187. doi: 10.2478/jtim-2020-0027. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Asli Semiz¹, Ozden Ozgun Acar², Hulya Cetin³, Gurkan Semiz⁴, Alaattin Sen^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Pamukkale University, Faculty of Technology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Denizli 20070, Turkey.
² Pamukkale University, Seed Breeding & Genetic Application and Research Centre Denizli 20070, Turkey.
³ Pamukkale University, Faculty of Medicine, Basic Medical Sciences-Histology and Embryology, Denizli 20070, Turkey.
⁴ Pamukkale University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Biology Department, 20070 Denizli, Turkey.
⁵ Abdullah Gul University, Faculty of Life and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 38080 Kayseri, Turkey.

Abstract

Background and objective: This study was aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of Momordica charantia (MCh), along with a standard drug prednisolone, in a rat model of colitis induced by trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS).

Methods: After the induction of the experimental colitis, the animals were treated with MCh (4 g/kg/day) for 14 consecutive days by intragastric gavage. The colonic tissue expression levels of C-C motif chemokine ligand 17 (CCL-17), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-23, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), were determined at both mRNA and protein levels to estimate the effect of MCh. Besides, colonic specimens were analyzed histopathologically after staining with hematoxylin and eosin.

Results: The body weights from TNBS-instigated colitis rats were found to be significantly lower than untreated animals. Also, the IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-6, Il-23, TNF-α, CCL-17, and NF-kB mRNA and protein levels were increased significantly from 1.86-4.91-fold and 1.46-5.50-fold, respectively, in the TNBS-instigated colitis group as compared to the control. Both the MCh and prednisolone treatment significantly reduced the bodyweight loss. It also restored the induced colonic tissue levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ, and TNF-α to normal levels seen in untreated animals. These results were also supported with the histochemical staining of the colonic tissues from both control and treated animals.

Conclusion: The presented data strongly suggests that MCh has the anti-inflammatory effect that might be modulated through vitamin D metabolism. It is the right candidate for the treatment of UC as an alternative and complementary therapeutics.

Keywords: CYP27B1; Momordica charantia; alternative and complementary therapeutics; anti-inflammatory; immunohistochemistry; inflammatory bowel disease; inflammatory cytokines; trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid; ulcerative colitis; vitamin D.