Cacao polyphenol extract suppresses transformation of an aryl hydrocarbon receptor in C57BL/6 mice

Dioxins enter the body through the diet and cause various toxicological effects through transformation of an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Plant extracts and phytochemicals including flavonoids are reported to suppress this transformation. This paper investigates the suppression by a cacao polyphenol extract (CPE) of AhR transformation in vivo. The CPE was administered orally to C57BL/6 mice at 100 mg/kg of body weight, followed 1 h later by 3-methylcholanthrene (MC), an AhR agonist, injected intraperitoneally at 10 mg/kg of body weight. CPE suppressed the MC-induced transformation to the control level by inhibiting the formation of a heterodimer between AhR and an aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator in the liver at 3 h postadministration. It also suppressed MC-induced cytochrome P4501A1 expression and NAD(P)H:quinone-oxidoreductase activity, whereas it increased glutathione S-transferase activity at 25 h. CPE constituents and their metabolites might contribute, at least in part, to the suppression of AhR transformation. The results indicate that the intake of CPE suppressed the toxicological effects of dioxins in the body.