Stilbenes at Low Micromolar Concentrations Mitigate the NO, TNF-α, IL-1β and ROS Production in LPS-Stimulated Murine Macrophages

Abstract Stilbenes, of which resveratrol is the most studied, were described as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecules. Presumably, other stilbenes have similar biological properties, but the evidence is poorly documented. Therefore, 20 stilbenes from resveratrol monomers to tetramers were screened as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents in a cellular model of LPS-stimulated murine macrophages. Piceatannol (monomer), ϵ-viniferin and δ-viniferin (dimers), hopeaphenol and isohopeaphenol (tetramers) were the most powerful compounds that inhibited NO and ROS generation upon LPS exposure. Among these compounds, hopeaphenol (5-10 µM) showed the highest efficiency. Nevertheless, ϵ-viniferin was the most powerful to inhibit TNF-α release whereas isohopeaphenol was the greatest to reduce IL-1β upon LPS stimulation. Thus, this work provided evidence that the chemical structure of stilbenes is highly relevant to the behavior of their activities. These results will allow the selection of potential bioactive stilbenes to develop further studies to elucidate their molecular mechanism of action. Graphical abstract