Fig. 7.

TNF-α up-regulates Ace2 expression by NF-kB on intestinal epithelial cells and pelargonidin inhibits this pathway by activating AHR. Intestinal epithelial cells were purified from the colon of Ahr^+/+ and Ahr^−/− mice. Intestinal epithelial cells were cultured for 24 h with TNF-α 100 ng/ml and treated with Pelargonidin (5, 10, and 20 µM) or with the NF-κB inhibitor (iNF-kB 100 nM). At the end of stimulation, the relative mRNA expression of (A) Ace2 and (B) Il-6 was evaluated by Real-Time PCR. Values are normalized relative to Gapdh mRNA and the values are expressed relative to those of control group (Ahr^+/+ NT) which are arbitrarily set to one. are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 5); * p < 0.05.