Functional Mechanisms of Dietary Crocin Protection in Cardiovascular Models under Oxidative Stress.
Sepideh Zununi VahedMarisol Zuluaga TamayoVioleta Rodriguez-RuizOlivier ThibaudeauSobhan AboulhassanzadehJalal AbdolalizadehAnne Meddahi-PelléVirginie GueguenAbolfazl BarzegariGraciela Pavon-DjavidPublished in: Pharmaceutics (2024)
It was previously reported that crocin, a water-soluble carotenoid isolated from the Crocus sativus L. (saffron), has protective effects on cardiac cells and may neutralize and even prevent the formation of excess number of free radicals; however, functional mechanisms of crocin activity have been poorly understood. In the present research, we aimed to study the functional mechanism of crocin in the heart exposed to oxidative stress. Accordingly, oxidative stress was modeled in vitro on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and in vivo in mice using cellular stressors. The beneficial effects of crocin were investigated at cellular and molecular levels in HUVECs and mice hearts. Results indicated that oral administration of crocin could have protective effects on HUVECs. In addition, it protects cardiac cells and significantly inhibits inflammation via modulating molecular signaling pathways TLR4/PTEN/AKT/mTOR/NF-κB and microRNA (miR-21). Here we show that crocin not only acts as a direct free radical scavenger but also modifies the gene expression profiles of HUVECs and protects mice hearts with anti-inflammatory action under oxidative stress.
Keyphrases
- oxidative stress
- induced apoptosis
- signaling pathway
- cell proliferation
- pi k akt
- dna damage
- diabetic rats
- cell cycle arrest
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- ischemia reperfusion injury
- endothelial cells
- water soluble
- high fat diet induced
- anti inflammatory
- long non coding rna
- left ventricular
- genome wide
- toll like receptor
- immune response
- gene expression
- wild type
- adipose tissue
- atrial fibrillation
- heat shock