Group items tagged

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a gene that plays a critical regulatory role in the process of converting dietary carbohydrates to fat. In a new study, they disabled this gene in mice, which consequently had lower levels of body fat than their normal counterparts, despite being fed the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat pasta buffet. The authors of the study, to be published in the March 20 issue of the journal Cell, say the gene, called DNA-PK, could potentially play a role in the prevention of obesity related to the over-consumption of high-carbohydrate foods, such as pasta, rice, soda and sugary snacks.

Dietary supplementation with white button mushroom enhances natural killer cell activity in C57BL/6 mice. Wu D, Pae M, Ren Z, Guo Z, Smith D, Meydani SN. J Nutr. 2007 Jun;137(6):1472-7. PMID: 17513409

White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) exhibits antiproliferative and proapoptotic properties and inhibits prostate tumor growth in athymic mice. Adams LS, Phung S, Wu X, Ki L, Chen S. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(6):744-56. PMID: 19005974

Loren DJ, Seeram NP, Schulman RN, Holtzman DM. \nMaternal dietary supplementation with pomegranate juice is neuroprotective in an animal model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.\nPediatr Res. 2005 Jun;57(6):858-64. Epub 2005 Mar 17.\nPMID: 1577483

White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) exhibits antiproliferative and proapoptotic properties and inhibits prostate tumor growth in athymic mice. Adams LS, Phung S, Wu X, Ki L, Chen S. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(6):744-56. n PMID: 19005974

Inositols prevent and reverse endothelial dysfunction in diabetic rat and rabbit vasculature metabolically and by scavenging superoxide. Nascimento NR, Lessa LM, Kerntopf MR, Sousa CM, Alves RS, Queiroz MG, Price J, Heimark DB, Larner J, Du X, Brownlee M, Gow A, Davis C, Fonteles MC. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 3;103(1):218-23. Epub 2005 Dec 22. PMID: 16373499 doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509779103

These data indicate that fish oil feeding downregulated the endogenous PPAR-activation system and increased antioxidant gene expressions to protect against ROS excess Fish oil feeding alters liver gene expressions to defend against PPARalpha activation and ROS production. Takahashi M, Tsuboyama-Kasaoka N, Nakatani T, Ishii M, Tsutsumi S, Aburatani H, Ezaki O. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2002 Feb;282(2):G338-48. PMID: 11804856

Oral administration of active hexose correlated compound enhances host resistance to West Nile encephalitis in mice. Wang S, Welte T, Fang H, Chang GJ, Born WK, O'Brien RL, Sun B, Fujii H, Kosuna K, Wang T. J Nutr. 2009 Mar;139(3):598-602. Epub 2009 Jan 13. PMID: 19141700 doi:10.3945/jn.108.100297

Active hexose correlated compound acts as a prebiotic and is antiinflammatory in rats with hapten-induced colitis. Daddaoua A, Martínez-Plata E, López-Posadas R, Vieites JM, González M, Requena P, Zarzuelo A, Suárez MD, de Medina FS, Martínez-Augustin O. J Nutr. 2007 May;137(5):1222-8. PMID: 17449585

White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) exhibits antiproliferative and proapoptotic properties and inhibits prostate tumor growth in athymic mice. Adams LS, Phung S, Wu X, Ki L, Chen S. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(6):744-56. PMID: 19005974 DOI: 10.1080/01635580802192866

Edible mushrooms are a versatile functional food and have been touted as a way to preserve youth, longevity and overall health for centuries. Now nutrition researchers from Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University are finding that they may even help boost the immune system and reduce inflammation, especially in the colon. Keith R. Martin, ASU assistant professor in nutrition, along with his Penn State colleagues, experimented with various types of mushrooms, from the more common white button to the exotic like shiitake and oyster, to see what sort of effect they had on the immune system. Their paper was published in late February in BMC Immunology, a peer reviewed online journal. "We found that the white button mushroom seemed to be the most effective in boosting the immune system, which is good because they are the most affordable," said Martin.

White button mushrooms appear to boost immune function It appears that a little fungus may be good for what ails you. That's the conclusion of a new study that found that eating white button mushrooms may boost the immune system and protect against infection. If the research, done on animals, translates to people, it could raise the health-benefit profile of the fungus, which also contains high concentrations of the super-antioxidant ergothioneine, which protects cells from damaging free radicals. "This is the first published study showing the effect of white button mushrooms on immune function," Dayong Wu, a scientist in the Immunology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts and lead author of the study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Nutrition, told NutraIngredients.com. The research also suggests that the mushroom may boost both innate and acquired immune system health. The innate immune system, the one you're born with, is the body's first line of defense. The acquired immune system revs up if a pathogen makes its way past the innate system and customizes the immune response to target the invader.

Benfotiamine, a synthetic S-acyl thiamine derivative, has different mechanisms of action and a different pharmacological profile than lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivatives. Volvert ML, Seyen S, Piette M, Evrard B, Gangolf M, Plumier JC, Bettendorff L. BMC Pharmacol. 2008 Jun 12;8:10. PMID: 18549472 doi:10.1186/1471-2210-8-10 Conclusion Our results show that, though benfotiamine strongly increases thiamine levels in blood and liver, it has no significant effect in the brain. This would explain why beneficial effects of benfotiamine have only been observed in peripheral tissues, while sulbutiamine, a lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivative, that increases thiamine derivatives in the brain as well as in cultured cells, acts as a central nervous system drug. We propose that benfotiamine only penetrates the cells after dephosphorylation by intestinal alkaline phosphatases. It then enters the bloodstream as S-benzoylthiamine that is converted to thiamine in erythrocytes and in the liver. Benfotiamine, an S-acyl derivative practically insoluble in organic solvents, should therefore be differentiated from truly lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivatives (allithiamine and the synthetic sulbutiamine and fursultiamine) with a different mechanism of absorption and different pharmacological properties.

"Results indicated that mice on diets supplemented with flaxseed meal and flaxseed oil had, on average, 45 percent fewer tumors in the small intestine and the colon compared to the control group." The scientists published their research findings in February in the academic peer-reviewed international journal Nutrition and Cancer.

There is new research out this morning from South Dakota State University which offers evidence that including flax in the diet may help prevent colorectal tumors or keep tumors from growing as quickly when they do form. Professor C. Dwivedi, head of SDSU's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, directed the study. The study was conducted in mice that develop spontaneous intestinal tumors. This strain of mouse is often used as a model by cancer researchers due to this mutation.

Chemopreventive and renal protective effects for docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): implications of CRP and lipid peroxides. Elmesery ME, Algayyar MM, Salem HA, Darweish MM, El-Mowafy AM. Cell Div. 2009 Apr 2;4(1):6. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19341447 doi:10.1186/1747-1028-4-6

Prostate tumor growth and recurrence can be modulated by the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in diet: athymic mouse xenograft model simulating radical prostatectomy. Kelavkar UP, Hutzley J, Dhir R, Kim P, Allen KG, McHugh K. Neoplasia. 2006 Feb;8(2):112-24. PMID: 16611404