Rutin prevents inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide in RAW 264.7 cells via conquering the TLR4-MyD88-TRAF6-NF-κB signalling pathway

Objectives Inflammation widely exists in many diseases and poses a great threat to human and animal health. Rutin, quercetin-3-rhamnosyl glucoside, has a variety of pharmacological effects, including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer and radioresistance effects. The current study focused on evaluation of its anti-inflammatory activity and described the mechanism of rutin in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Methods The related gene and protein expression levels were investigated by quantification real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Key findings This study revealed that rutin can decrease inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene and protein expression levels, effectively increase I kappa B gene expression, reduce toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), tumour necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and p65 gene expression and inhibit the phosphorylation of I kappa B and p65 and the proteins expression of TLR4, MyD88 and TRAF6. Conclusions These results suggest that rutin might exert anti-inflammatory effect on LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells and will be potentially useful as an adjuvant treatment for inflammatory diseases.