Anti-inflammatory effect of Crocus sativus on Serum Cytokine Levels in Subjects with Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo- controlled Trial

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A growing body of evidence supports an important role of inflammatory-cytokines in development and progression of metabolic-syndrome (MetS), which explain, at least in part, its relationship with an increased cardiovascular-risk. Several studies have reported the therapeutic-impact of crocus-sativus in preclinical/clinical setting. Here we have explored the effects of crocus-sativus, saffron, on the modulation of twelve serum cytokines in subjects with MetS in a randomized control trial. METHODS: Forty four adult volunteers, who met the diagnostic-criteria of MetS, were enrolled and randomly divided into 2 groups, to receive 100 mg/day crocus-sativus for 12 weeks. 12 cytokines, including IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α, MCP-1, IFN-γ, EGF, and VEGF were measured using a sandwich chemi-luminescence assays before/after therapy. RESULTS: Our findings showed that MetS-patients who received therapy had a significantly (P<0.05) lower levels of total-cholesterol, low density-lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglyceride (TG), fasting-blood-sugar and hsCRP, however the serum concentration of high density-lipoprotein-cholesterol markedly enhanced after therapy (e.g., TG level reduced from 148.86±71.49 to 101.90±38.19 after therapy, P= 0.003). Moreover, we observed that Crocus-sativus was able to modulate the serum-concentrations of some pro-/anti-inflamatory cytokines. In particular the level of VEGF was increased from 12.64 pg/mL (95%CI: 9.60-17.67) to 16.59 (95%CI: 11.33-35.98, P= 0.033. Similar results were detected for IL-6 and EGF. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide a novel insight on the therapeutic role and mechanisms of this therapy in treatment of MetS patients via perturbation of cytokines and reducing the levels of triglyceride and LDL/TC, supporting further studies in a larger population.

Cytokines; Metabolic Syndrome ; Saffron