MLKL necroptosis signaling

Journal Pre-proof Hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by maintaining the epithelial barrier via blocking RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis signaling Jixiang Zhang, Hongbo Lei, Xue Hu, Weiguo Dong PII:

S0014-2999(20)30084-4

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.172992

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EJP 172992

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European Journal of Pharmacology

Received Date: 9 November 2019 Revised Date:

28 January 2020

Accepted Date: 4 February 2020

Please cite this article as: Zhang, J., Lei, H., Hu, X., Dong, W., Hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by maintaining the epithelial barrier via blocking RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis signaling, European Journal of Pharmacology (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.172992. This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by maintaining the epithelial barrier via blocking RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis signaling Jixiang Zhang1, Hongbo Lei2, Xue Hu1, Weiguo Dong1 1

Department of gastroenterology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei

Province, China 2

Department of Oncology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province,

China Correspondence to Weiguo Dong ([email protected] and [email protected]) Telephone: +86-27-88041911

Fax: +86-27-880422292

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ABSTRACT Hesperetin, a flavonoid from citrus fruits, possess various pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-tumor potentials. However, the role and its mechanism in ulcerative colitis (UC) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of hesperetin on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) -induced colitis. Our results showed that hesperetin significantly relieved the symptoms of DSS -induced colitis and increased the expressions of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), occludin and mucin2 (MUC-2) as well as the decrease of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, HMGB1 and IL-6. Of note, results from immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blotting indicated that hesperetin inhibited the expressions of receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) and mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL), the two key proteins

of necroptosis pathway, and inactivated RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis signalling. Meanwhile, in the cell-coculture system between Caco-2 and RAW264.7 cells, hesperetin treatment significantly ameliorated the decrease of trans epithelial electric resistance (TEER) value while HS-173 (necroptosis inducer) could obviously influence the effect of hesperetin. In addition, hesperetin attenuated the LPS-induced increasing in 4-kDa fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FD4) permeability while HS-173 could weaken the protective effect of hesperetin. Meanwhile, HS-173 reduced the changes in the expressions of phosphorylated RIPK3, phosphorylated MLKL, ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 as well as TNF-α, IL-1β. These findings demonstrated hesperetin ameliorated DSS-induced colitis by maintaining the epithelial barrier via blocking the intestinal epithelial necroptosis. Keywords: Hesperetin; ulcerative colitis; necroptosis; epithelial barrier; inflammation

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1. Introduction

Ulcerative colitis (UC), one of two major types of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), is a chronic and idiopathic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, featuring submucosal accumulation of inflammatory cells and damage to the epithelial layer, which usually begins in the rectum and spreads to the proximal segments of the colon (Zuo et al., 2019; Ungaro et al., 2017). The incidence and prevalence of UC have been increasing over time worldwide, especially in newly industrialized countries (Zuo et al., 2018; Ng et al., 2018). Characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and weight loss, UC affects the health of millions of people (Dulai et al., 2018). While the etiology of UC remains unclear, activation of the mucosal immune system, dysfunction of the intestinal epithelial barrier and consequent pathological cytokine production play key roles (Sina et al., 2018; Neurath et al., 2019). Aminosalicylates, glucocorticoids, immunosuppressive agents and biological drugs are the main drugs used to treat UC (Cohen et al., 2017). However, because there are severe side effects, insufficient response rate and cost challenge, novel UC treatments that are effective, available and have fewer side effects are urgently needed. Recently, several natural products have been shown to exert biological activity against intestinal inflammation including UC (Jo et al., 2019; Szebeni et al., 2019; Pagano et al., 2019; Pagano et al., 2016; Capasso et al., 2016). Hesperetin (3’,5,7-trihydroxy-4-methoxyflavanone), a member of the flavanone subclass of flavonoids, is a derivative of hesperidin that is found in citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruit (Shirzad et al., 2017). It has been reported that hesperetin shows several pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antitumor, antihypertensive, antidiabetic and antiatherogenic effects (Alu'datt et al., 2017; Parhiz et al., 2015; Li et

al., 2019; Chen et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2015; González-Alfonso et al., 2018; Kwon et al., 2018; Muhammad et al., 2019). Hesperetin significantly downregulated the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and reduced the secretion of inflammatory cytokines including 3

interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated BV-2 microglial cells (Jo et al., 2019). Additionally, hesperetin markedly ameliorates Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4)-mediated ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1/glial fibrillary acidic protein (Iba-1/GFAP) expression and exerts neuroprotection (Muhammad et al., 2019). In human macrophages cells, hesperetin participates in immune response by enhancing phagocytosis of macrophages to promote the release of nitric oxide, IL-6 and IL-1β, and enhances immunity by upregulating the protein expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL (Ma et al., 2019). Another study also reported that hesperetin markedly ameliorated the renal functions and structural changes in diabetic rats, accompanied by upregulation of glyoxalase 1, as well as inhibition of the advanced glycosylation end products / receptor for advanced glycation endproducts axis and inflammation via activation of the nuclear factor-related factor 2 / antioxidant response element pathway (Kong et al., 2019). Although citrus flavanones and their metabolites have the potential to contribute to improved gastrointestinal function and health (Stevens et al., 2019), and hesperetin exerts anti-inflammatory effects, little is known about its effect and mechanism in UC. In this study, we reported the activities of hesperetin in reducing the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and maintaining colonic mucosal layer integrity via blocking epithelial necroptosis in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) -induced UC mice.

2. Materials and methods

2.1 Reagents DSS (MW = 36–50 kDa) was obtained from MP Bioscience (Irvine, CA). Fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (4-kDa) (FD-4) was purchased from Sigma (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA). Hesperetin (>98% purity) and poly(I:C) were purchased from Sigma (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA). The hesperetin stock solution was prepared at 200 mM in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and stored at -20℃. The primary antibodies used included rabbit anti-phospho-RIPK3 (Thr231/Ser232) (Cell Signaling Technology, Cat#47477), rabbit anti-phospho-MLKL(Ser345) 4

(Cell Signaling Technology, Cat#37333), rabbit anti-zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) (Abcam, ab216880), rabbit anti-Occludin (Abcam, ab222691), rabbit anti-mucin2 (MUC-2) (Abcam, ab76774), rabbit anti-cleaved caspase3 (Cell Signaling Technology, Cat#9664), and rabbit anti-GAPDH (Cell Signaling Technology, Cat#5174). 2.2 Animals and Model Healthy male C57BL/6 mice (6-8 weeks of age, 18-22 g) were purchased from the Center for Animal Experiment of Wuhan University. The mice were maintained in open, wire-top, polypropylene cages (8 per cage) and allowed ad libitum access to water and rat chow (23% protein and 4% fat). Standard conditions of 22 ± 2°C, 40–60% humidity and a 12-h light/dark cycle were maintained. The animals were allowed to acclimatize for two weeks before experiments were performed. All mice were adapted at least 7 days before they were used in experiments. All experiments were performed according to the recommendations of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Research of Wuhan University (2018-CK14). Colitis was induced with 2.5% (w/v) DSS dissolved in drinking water given ad libitum for 7 days. The mice were randomly divided into four groups: (i) control group; (ii) hesperetin treatment (20 mg/kg, injected daily intraperitoneally); (iii) DSS treatment; and (iv) DSS with hesperetin (20 mg/kg, injected daily intraperitoneally). Weights were recorded daily, and the disease activity index (DAI) was obtained by adding the scores of weight loss (0: normal, 1–2: 1%–10%, 3: 10%–20% weight loss and 4: more than 20% weight loss), stool consistency (0: normal, 1–2: loose stool and 3–4: diarrhea), and rectal bleeding (0: negative, 1–2: occult blood positive and 3–4: gross blood) (Yu et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2012). At the end of the experiments, the mice were killed, and the colon length and weight loss were determined. 2.3 Cell culture Caco2 and RAW264.7 cells were purchased from the Shanghai Cell Collection (Shanghai, China). All cells 5

were incubated in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco Laboratories, Shanghai, China) and 1% penicillin/streptomycin (Gibco Laboratories) in a 5% CO2 humidified atmosphere at 37 °C. The cells were passaged using 0.05% trypsin/EDTA (Corning) and preserved at early passages. Mycoplasma detection was routinely tested by PCR. 2.4 Histological Evaluation Colon specimens collected from each animal were fixed in 4% neutral-buffered paraformaldehyde for at least 24 h. After fixation, the colons were embedded in paraffin and processed for histological analysis. The colons were cut into 5-µm sections and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Standard histological evaluations were performed by a pathologist who was blinded to the experimental conditions. Histological assessment of colitis lesions along the entire colon length was performed based on the following scoring system: crypt architecture damage (0: normal; 3: severe crypt distortion with loss of entire crypts), degree of inflammatory cell infiltration (0: normal; 3: muscle layer inflammatory infiltrate), and edema in the submucosa (0: normal; 3: severe) (He et al., 2019). All tissue sections were examined by a light microscopy (BX51, Olympus, Japan).

2.5 RNA preparation and quantitative real-time PCR analysis

Total RNA was isolated from cells using TRIzol reagent (TAKARA) and reverse-transcribed to produce cDNA. After reverse transcription, the cDNA products were subjected to real-time PCR analysis to measure the mRNA expression levels of the tested genes. Relative expression was calculated according to the ∆∆Ct quantification method. The relative mRNA expression levels were calculated as ratios to the housekeeping gene GAPDH. Each sample within an experiment was analyzed in triplicate, and the experiment was carried out three times.

2.6 Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and periodic acid-schiff (PAS) The paraffin sections were blocked with TBST containing 5% BSA for 2h. Then, the sections were coincubated

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with primary antibody at 4°C overnight. After that, the tissue sections were coincubated with the matched secondary antibody for 1h. According to the manufacturer’s instructions, the slides were coincubated with the DAB kit for 10min. All tissue sections were examined by light microscopy (BX51, Olympus, Japan). PAS staining was performed according to standard protocols.

2.7 Transepithelial electric resistance (TEER) evaluation and FD-4 cell permeability

Caco-2 cells (1 × 105 cells/ml) were seeded in transwell cell culture chambers (Corning Costar, Cambridge, MA). After the Caco-2 cell monolayer formed, RAW264.7 cells (2 × 106 cells/ml) were seeded in the bottom of the transwell chamber. After two days with or without LPS (0.5 µg/ ml), the RAW264.7 cells were treated with hesperetin (100 µM), HS-173(necroptosis inducer, 1 µM), or hesperetin plus HS-173 for 24 h. The cell culture medium was replaced with serum free medium and incubated for 30min, and then the TEER (Ω/cm2) was evaluated. After that, FD-4 (100 µl of 1 mg/ml) which is used to study gastrointestinal paracellular permeability, was added to the upper wells of the transwell chambers and incubated in 37 °C for 30min

to determine its ability to cross from

the lumen and into the circulation. Then, 100 µl of medium from the bottom of the transwell chamber was added to a black well to detect the fluorescence absorbance at an excitation wavelength of 480 nm and emission wavelength of 520 nm by a microplate reader.

2.8 Western blot analysis

Western blotting was performed according to standard procedures. Colon tissues and cells were lysed in RIPA lysis buffer (50mM Tris-HCl pH 7.4, 1% NP-40, 0.5% Na-deoxycholate, 0.5% SDS, 150mM NaCl, 2mM EDTA, 50Mm NaF) supplemented with protease inhibitor and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail (Gendeport, Barker, TX, USA). The protein concentration was measured by using a BCA protein assay kit (Thermo, Rockford, IL, USA). The extracted proteins were subjected to SDS-PAGE (8%–12%), transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes 7

(Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA), and blocked with 5% nonfat milk in TBST. Then, the membranes were immunoblotted with several primary antibodies overnight at 4℃. After washing with TBST three times, the membranes were incubated with a 1:10,000 diluted secondary antibody (LI-COR Biosciences, Lincoln, NE, USA) for 1 h at room temperature before they were washed with TBST three times. Finally, the membranes were scanned using a two-color infrared imaging system (Odyssey, Lincoln, NE, USA). The membranes were also probed for GAPDH as an additional loading control.

2.9 Statistical Analysis

Data are expressed as the mean ± S.D.. Differences between or among groups were compared with Student’s t-test or by one-way or two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). All experiments were repeated at least three times. P

values less than 0.05 were deemed statistically significant. 3. Results

3.1 Hesperetin attenuated DSS-induced UC in mice

To confirm the effect of hesperetin on UC, the DSS-induced colitis mouse model, which mimics the symptoms of human colitis, was utilized. The body weight was monitored every day, and the colon length was measured. Histological and DAI scores were obtained according to the scoring system described above. As illustrated in Fig.1, mice showed the symptoms and inflammatory characteristics of colitis in the DSS group. Mice in the DSS group showed a significantly decreased rate of weight loss and colon length, and increased DAI and HI scores comparing to the control group, while these DSS-induced changes were rescued by treatment with hesperetin. These results indicated that hesperetin had effective protection against DSS-induced colitis.

3.2 Hesperetin ameliorated DSS-induced damage to the epithelial and mucosal barrier

Gut barrier integrity is maintained by tight junction proteins such as ZO-1, occludin and claudins, while the 8

mucosal barrier is modulated by colonic mucin such as MUC-2. Mucins and tight junction proteins are critically downregulated under IBD conditions, leading to increased gut permeability to microbial ligands and noxious metabolites and resulting in systemic inflammatory responses (van der Post et al., 2019). To evaluate the protective effect of hesperetin on intestinal barrier function, immunohistochemistry (IHC), PAS and western blotting were used to determine the expression levels of ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 in colon tissues. The IHC results showed well-organized and abundant ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 present in the colonic epithelial cells in the control and hesperetin groups (Fig. 2A). DSS treatment disrupted the colon epithelial and mucosal barrier by decreasing the expression of ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2. Hesperetin treatment critically increased the expression of ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 compared with that of the DSS-treated group (P<0.05). The western blotting results were consistent with those of IHC (P<0.05, Fig. 2B). The PAS results indicated that hesperetin attenuated the DSS-induced damage to the mucosal barrier (Fig. 2A). Taken together, these results suggest that the protectective effects of hesperetin on DSS-induced colitis are associated with maintenance of the epithelial and mucosal barrier.

3.3 Hesperetin reduced DSS-induced proinflammatory cytokine production

To investigate the role of hesperetin in cytokine expressions, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-1β, IL-18, HMGB1 and IL-6 were detected by q-PCR. As shown in Fig. 3, hesperetin significantly attenuated the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, high mobility group protein 1 (HMGB1) and IL-6 but increased the mRNA levels of IL-10, which was consistent with the anti-inflammatory effect of hesperetin on the DSS-induced colitis model.

3.4 Modulation of RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis in Colon Tissues Necroptosis is a new mode of cell death that is similar to necrosis in that dying cells show the morphological features of necrosis but not of apoptosis (Sharma et al., 2017). On the one hand, intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) necroptosis alters intestinal barrier function to allow the translocation of commensal bacteria; on the other hand, damage to the number and function of Paneth cells as well as Goblet cells leads to microbiota dysbiosis and immune 9

activation because of abnormal secretion, dysfunctional stem cell niche and damaged innate immune sensing (Sharma et al., 2017). To study whether hesperetin maintains the epithelial and mucosal barrier as well as reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine production via the necroptosis pathway, IHC and western blotting were used to detect

the expression of receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) and mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL), the key proteins of necroptosis pathway, in mouse colon tissues. As shown in Figure 4A, IHC imaging indicated that the expression of RIPK3 and MLKL was significantly increased after DSS ingestion. However, hesperetin treatment critically decreased the expression of RIPK3 and MLKL compared with that in DSS group, (Fig. 4A).

The western blotting results were consistent with those of IHC (Fig. 4B). Taken together, RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis may contribute to the protective effect of hesperetin on DSS-induced colitis.

3.5 Hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by blocking epithelial necroptosis To further clarify whether the protective effect of hesperetin on the intestinal epithelial and mucosal barrier was related to epithelial necroptosis, a Caco-2 and RAW264.7 cells coculture system was utilized. After LPS stimulation, hesperetin treatment significantly ameliorated the decrease in TEER (an indicator of defective mucosal barrier) value compared to the control group while HS-173 (an inducer of the RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis pathway) obviously influenced the effect of hesperetin (Fig. 5A). The FD-4 cell permeability experiment showed that hesperetin attenuated the LPS-induced increase in FD-4 permeability, while HS-173 weakened the protective effect of hesperetin (Fig. 5B). In addition, HS-173 significantly influenced the effect of hesperetin on the mRNA levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in RAW264.7 cells in response to various treatments (Fig. 5C and 5D). Moreover, the western blotting and q-PCR results indicated that HS-173 reduced the changes induced by hesperetin in the expression of phosphorylated RIPK3, phosphorylated MLKL, ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 as well as TNF-α and IL-1β (Fig. 5E, 5F and 5G). These results indicated that hesperetin maintained the epithelial and mucosal barrier by blocking epithelial 10

necroptosis (Fig. 6).

4. Discussion

Hesperetin, one of the most common flavonoids in citrus, has several biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumoral and lipid lowering effects (Saiprasad et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2017). Hesperetin blocks bile acid-induced apoptosis and cytokine-induced inflammation in rat hepatocytes, improves liver histology and protects against hepatocyte injury in ConA- and D-GalN/LPS-induced fulminant hepatitis by reducing the expression of the inflammatory marker inducible nitric oxide synthase and the expression and serum levels of TNFα and IFN-γ (Bai et al., 2017). Additionally, hesperetin ameliorates cisplatin-induced oxidative stress by reducing malondialdehyde/myeloperoxidase levels and increasing superoxide dismutase/glutathione levels by activating nuclear factor-related factor 2 (Nrf2) in a dose-dependent manner, and inhibits the expression of apoptotic proteins to protect kidneys from cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (Chen et al., 2019). Another study also reported that hesperetin increased the expression of arginase-1, IL-10, and TGF-β, whereas the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase was downregulated in LPS- and IFN-γ-treated (M1) RAW264.7 cells by modulating the JAK2/STAT3 pathway (Chen et al., 2019). Although hesperetin could be used to treat various chronic diseases, the role of hesperetin in UC has not been experimentally elucidated. Our study showed that hesperetin significantly ameliorated pathological epithelial damage, reduced DAI and HI scores, and inhibited colon shortening and weight loss, which indicated that hesperetin had a protective effect on DSS-induced colitis mice. The intestinal mucosal barrier plays a physical, protective and pivotal role in maintaining peaceful coexistence with the diverse microorganisms harbored in the gut and detects and eliminates pathogenic microbial debris by triggering the immune response and inflammatory response (Hegyi et al., 2018; Martens et al., 2018). The intestinal epithelium, which is covered by a single-cell layer, consists of different subtypes of specialized IECs including Paneth cells, Goblet cells, microfold villus cells, tuft cells, absorptive cells and enteroendocrine cells that together 11

maintain intestinal homeostasis by controlling the crosstalk between the luminal microbiota and subjacent immune cells (Peterson and Artis, 2014). The importance of intestinal barrier function in IBD, including both disruption of the physical barrier as well as loss of tolerance against components of the microbiota, has been recognized for decades (Ramos and Papadakis, 2014). On the one hand, increased permeability, results from the loss of physical barrier functions, and facilitates the crosstalk between luminal antigens and mucosal immune cells; on the other hand, intestinal epithelial cells participate in the recognition of pathogens and recruitment of other immune cells and ultimately initiate inflammation (Manresa and Taylor, 2017). In the present study, the results showed that the

well organized and abundant ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 in the colonic epithelial cells were downregulated by DSS in the control group. Hesperetin treatment critically increased the expression of ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 compared with DSS-treated group. Additionally, the PAS results indicated that hesperetin attenuated the damage to the mucosal barrier induced by DSS. Taken together, these results suggested that the protective effects of hesperetin on DSS-induced colitis are associated with the maintenance of the epithelial and mucosal barrier. Recent studies have suggested that the necroptosis pathway participates in intestinal inflammation, including IBD. First, necroptosis of intestinal epithelial cells impairs the epithelial and mucosal barrier. Second, the release of endogenous damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) amplifies the inflammatory response driven by immune and non-immune cells, activates and increases the level of abundant cytokines, and promotes epigenetic reprogramming in IBD. In the terminal ileum of patients with Crohn's disease (CD), the expression of RIPK3 in Paneth cells and necroptosis are increased which suggests a potential role of necroptosis in the pathogenesis of CD (Günther et al., 2011). In addition, the deletion of Atg16l1 (a key protein of autophagy cascade) in IECs resulted in the loss of Paneth cells and TNFα-mediated necroptosis, and therapeutic blockade of necroptosis through TNFα or RIPK1 kinase inhibition ameliorated disease in the virally triggered IBD model, which indicate that, Atg16l1 maintains the intestinal barrier by inhibiting necroptosis in the epithelium in contrast to tumor cells in which 12

autophagy promotes caspase-independent cell death (Matsuzawa-Ishimoto et al., 2011). Our results showed that the expression of RIPK3 and MLKL was significantly increased after DSS ingestion, while hesperetin treatment critically decreased the expression of RIPK3 and MLKL. Additionally, hesperetin significantly attenuated the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, HMGB1 and IL-6 but increased the mRNA levels of IL-10. In the coculture system with Caco-2 and RAW264.7 cells, hesperetin treatment significantly ameliorated the decrease in TEER, while HS-173 obviously influenced the effect of hesperetin. In addition, hesperetin attenuated the LPS-induced increases in FD-4 permeability while HS-173 weakened the protective effect of hesperetin. Moreover, the western blotting and q-PCR results indicated that HS-173 rescued the changes in expression of phosphorylated RIPK3, phosphorylated MLKL, ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 as well as TNF-α and IL-1β. These results indicate that hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by blocking epithelial necroptosis. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that hesperetin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis by maintaining the epithelial and mucosal barrier and inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by blocking intestinal epithelial necroptosis. Thus, hesperetin could serve as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All experiments were performed according to the recommendations of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Research of Wuhan University, China.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

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Data availability

Data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and will be made availability on request.

Funding

This work was supported by the Guiding Foundation of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (Grant No. RMYD2018M12) and Independent research project of Wuhan University (Grant No. 2042019kf0075).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors' contributions

Weiguo Dong worked as the supervisor and participated in processes of study design and data analysis and writing. Jixiang Zhang participated in inducing the colitis and animal experiment. Hongbo Lei participated in the experiment in vitro. Xue Hu participated in the data analysis and histological analysis.

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Figure 1 Effect of hesperetin on DSS-induced mice colitis symptoms. (A) Effects of hesperetin on the histopathological changes

in colonic tissues. (B) The body weight changes were calculated using initial body weight as datum line. (C) The lengths of colons

from each group of mice. (D) Histopathological scores of each group were evaluated. (E) The disease activity index (DAI) of

colitis was evaluated. *P < 0.05 versus control group. #P < 0.05 versus DSS-treated group. Data are presented as mean ± S.D..

Figure 2 Hesperetin ameliorated DSS-induced damages in epithelial and mucus barrier. (A) IHC and PAS imaging showed

hesperetin treatment critically rescued the changes in the expressions of ZO-1, occludin and MUC-2 resulted from DSS treatment.

(B) Western blotting showed hesperetin inhibited the down-regulation of ZO-1 and occludin by DSS. *P < 0.05 versus control

group. #P < 0.05 versus DSS-treated group. Data are presented as mean ± S.D..

Figure 3 Effect of hesperetin on inflammatory cytokine expression in the colon of DSS-treated mice. Hesperetin significantly

attenuated the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, HMGB1 and IL-6 but increased the mRNA levels of IL-10. *P < 0.05 versus

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control group. #P < 0.05 versus DSS-treated group. Data are presented as mean ± S.D..

Figure 4 Effect of hesperetin on the inactivation of RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis in DSS-induced mice colitis. (A and B) IHC

imaging and western blotting showed that hesperetin inhibited the activation of RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis pathway induced by

DSS. *P < 0.05 versus control group. #P < 0.05 versus DSS-treated group. Data are presented as mean ± S.D..

Figure 5 Hesperetin maintains epithelial and mucus barrier by blocking epithelial RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis. (A and B) TEER

value and permeability of various treatments of the Caco-2 monolayer (n = 3). (C and D) HS-173 significantly influenced the

effect of hesperetin on the mRNA levels of TNF-α and IL-1β of various treatments of the RAW264.7 cells (n = 3). (E and F)

HS-173 significantly influenced the effect of hesperetin on the protein expression of epithelial and mucosal barrier in the Caco-2

cells (n = 3). *P < 0.05 versus control group. #P < 0.05 versus LPS-treated group. Data are presented as mean ± S.D..

Figure 6 A proposed schema for Hesperetin ameliorating DSS-induced colitis by blocking epithelial RIPK3/MLKL necroptosis.

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