Hindawi Publishing Corporation Mediators of Inflammation Volume 2013, Article ID 863198, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/863198 Research Article The Effects of Proresolution of Ellagic Acid in an Experimental Model of Allergic Airway Inflammation Claudiney de Freitas Alves, 1 Giovanna Natalia Angeli, 1 Daniely Cornélio Favarin, 1 Edinéia Lemos de Andrade, 2 Javier Emilio Lazo Chica, 1 Lúcia Helena Faccioli, 3 Paulo Roberto da Silva, 1 and Alexandre de Paula Rogerio 1 1 Laborat´ orio de ImunoFarmacologia Experimental (LIFE), Departamento de Cl´ ınica M´ edica, Instituto de Ciˆ encias da Sa´ ude, Universidade Federal do Triˆ angulo Mineiro (UFTM), Rua Manoel Carlos 162, 38025-380 Uberaba, MG, Brazil 2 Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florian´ opolis, SC, Brazil 3 Departamento de An´ alises Cl´ ınicas, Toxicol´ ogicas e Bromatol´ ogicas, Faculdade de Ciˆ encias Farmacˆ euticas de Ribeir˜ ao Preto, Universidade de S˜ ao Paulo (USP), Ribeir˜ ao Preto, SP, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Alexandre de Paula Rogerio; alexprogerio@biomedicina.uſtm.edu.br Received 29 July 2013; Accepted 13 September 2013 Academic Editor: Nina Ivanovska Copyright © 2013 Claudiney de Freitas Alves et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Asthma is a disease of airway inflammation characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, eosinophilic inflammation, and hypersecretion of mucus. Ellagic acid, a compound derived from medicinal plants and fruits, has shown anti-inflammatory activity in several experimental disease models. We used the classical experimental model, in BALB/c mice, of sensibilization with ovalbumin to determine the effect of ellagic acid (10 mg/kg; oral route) in the resolution of allergic airways response. Dexamethasone (1 mg/kg; subcutaneous route) was used as a positive control. e control group consisted of nonimmunized mice that received challenge with ovalbumin. Ellagic acid and dexamethasone or vehicle (water) were administered before or aſter intranasal allergen challenge. Ellagic acid accelerated the resolution of airways inflammation by decreasing total leukocytes and eosinophils numbers in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), the mucus production and lung inflammation in part by reducing IL-5 concentration, eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) activity, and P-selectin expression, but not activator protein 1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-B) pathways. In addition, ellagic acid enhanced alveolar macrophage phagocytosis of IgG-OVA-coated beads ex vivo, a new proresolving mechanism for the clearance of allergen from the airways. Together, these findings identify ellagic acid as a potential therapeutic agent for accelerating the resolution of allergic airways inflammation. 1. Introduction Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that is highly prevalent worldwide and it is characterized by the recruit- ment of leukocytes, mainly eosinophils, airway hyperreac- tivity, IgE production, and mucus hypersecretion. e phys- iopathology of allergic asthma is coordinated mainly by 2- type immune responses which are characterized by release of cytokines such as interleukin- (IL-) 4, IL-5, and IL-13 and chemokines such as RANTES and CCL11 [1–3]. Most patients with asthma have symptoms that are readily controllable by standard asthma therapies, including 2-adrenergic agonists, low doses of inhaled corticosteroids, or leukotriene modifiers [4]. Although these drugs have potent activity, they also have various and severe adverse effects [5, 6]. erefore, agents of natural origin with very few side effects are required as substitutes for chemical therapeutics. Natural products have long been used in folk medicine as alternative treatment for various diseases, including inflammatory processes of diverse origin. Many medicinal plants provide relief of symptoms comparable to that obtained with allopathic medicines [5, 7, 8]. In the course of an ongoing search for bioactive plant-derived natural products, several groups, including our own, have successfully employed experimental methods to