Effects of Coenzyme Q10 on TNF-α secretion in human and murine monocytic cell lines

Studies in humans and cell culture as well as bioinformatics suggested that Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) functions as an anti- inflammatory molecule. Here we studied the influence of CoQ10 (Kaneka QTM 10) on secretion of the pro- inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) by using the human and murine monocytic cell lines THP- 1 and RAW264.7 expressing human apolipoprotein E3 (apoE3) or pro- inflammatory apoE4. Incubation of cells with physiological (0.1-10 mu M) and supra- physiological (> 10 to <= 100 mu M) concentrations of CoQ10 led to an intracellular accumulation of its reduced form without any cytotoxic effects. Stimulation of cell models with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulted in a substantially release of TNF-alpha. When THP-1 cells were pre- incubated with 10 mu MCoQ10, the LPS- induced TNF- a release was significantly decreased to 72 +/- 32%. This effect is similar to those obtained by 10 mu M N- Acetyl- Cysteine, a well known reference antioxidant. In RAW264.7-apoE3 and -apoE4 cells, significant reductions of LPS- induced TNF- a secretion to 73.3 +/- 2.8% and 74.7 +/- 8.9% were found with 2.5 mu M and 75 mu M CoQ(10), respectively. In conclusion, CoQ(10) has moderate anti-inflammatory effects in two monocytic cell lines which could be mediated by its antioxidant activity.