Fig 2: A schematic diagram of the experimental plans involving differentiated Caco-2 cells co-treated for 24 h with the inflammatory stimulus (IL1β) and AFA and pre-treated for 24 h with the inflammatory stimulus (IL1β) and subsequently with AFA at different concentration for an additional 24 h. The image shows that AFA induces an alteration in the expression levels of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), consequently leading to global DNA hypermethylation. At a specific gene level, AFA induces hypomethylation of IL8 and IL6 genes, resulting in increased gene expression

Fig 3: MSRE-PCR revealing methylation status of CG sites in the promoter region of IL8 gene, from Caco-2 cells treated with IL-1β, subsequent treated with AFA10 and AFA200. Densitometry of the bands is shown by histograms, which represent the mean of triplicate experiments with similar results. Statistical analysis performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Differences were considered significant at *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01

Fig 4: MSRE-PCR revealing methylation status of CG sites in the promoter region of IL8 gene, from Caco-2 cells treated with IL-1β, co-treated with IL-1β + AFA10 and IL-1β + AFA200. Densitometry of the bands is shown by histograms, which represent the mean of triplicate experiments with similar results. Statistical analysis performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Differences were considered significant at *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01