Flavonoids demonstrate various beneficial effects on our health – they have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial activity. Many of these biological actions have been attributed to their antioxidant properties. There is an emerging view that flavonoids do not act as conventional hydrogen-donating antioxidants but may exert modulatory actions in cells through actions at protein kinase signalling pathways.
In the other hand, flavonoids show great potential as anti-inflammatory and cancer chemopreventive agents in cell culture studies. This does not translate well into in vivo activity, because of their extensive metabolism in intestine and liver. Methoxyflavones also show increased cancer chemopreventive properties and they have been of particular interest due to their anti-inflammatory properties too.
Our aim is to establish an in vitro intestinal model mimicking oxidative stress triggered of chemicals and pathogen bacteria. It could be achieved by hydrogen-peroxide and LPS-treatment of a non-tumoric intestinal epithelial cell culture (using cell line IPEC-J2 derived from pig). Inflammation parameters such as proinflammatory cytokines and heat-shock proteins should be followed up (at the level of transciption and translation using qPCR and ELISA method, respectively). Furthermore, we plan to test effect of methoxyflavones, which are very promising but not extensively-studied compounds to prevent and cure inflammation diseases of the intestine.