Blueberries contain vital polyphenols that could contribute to a decline in obestiy

Source: Medical News Today Last week it was reported that strawberries may help treat throat cancer, now a new study shows how blueberries may aid in curbing obesity. Plant polyphenols have been shown to fight adipogenesis, which is the development of fat cell, and induce lipolysis, which is the breakdown of lipids and fat. The study was done to evaluate whether blueberry polyphenols play a role in adipocyte differentiation, the process in which a relatively unspecialized cell acquires specialized features of an adipocyte, an animal connective tissue cell specialized for the synthesis and storage of fat. Polyphenols occur in all plant foods and contribute to the beneficial health effects of vegetables and fruit. Their contribution to the antioxidant capacity of the human diet is much larger than that of vitamins. The total intake in a person's diet could amount to 1 gram a day, whereas combined intakes of beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E from food most often is about 100 mg a day. Phenolic acids account for about one third of the total intake of polyphenols in our diet, and flavonoids account for the remaining two thirds. Flavonoids are further subdivided into several categories. Shiwani Moghe, a graduate student at Texas Woman's University said: "The promise is there for blueberries to help reduce adipose tissue from forming in the body I wanted to see if using blueberry polyphenols could inhibit obesity at a molecular stage. We still need to test this dose in humans, to make sure there are [...]

Cranberry and grape seed extracts inhibit the proliferative phenotype of oral squamous cell carcinomas

Source: Evid. Based Complement. Altern. Med., July 23, 2008 Authors: Kourt Chatelain et al. Proanthocyanidins, compounds highly concentrated in dietary fruits, such as cranberries and grapes, demonstrate significant cancer prevention potential against many types of cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate cranberry and grape seed extracts to quantitate and compare their anti-proliferative effects on the most common type of oral cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma. Using two well-characterized oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, CAL27 and SCC25, assays were performed to evaluate the effects of cranberry and grape seed extract on phenotypic behaviors of these oral cancers. The proliferation of both oral cancer cell lines was significantly inhibited by the administration of cranberry and grape seed extracts, in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, key regulators of apoptosis, caspase-2 and caspase-8, were concomitantly up-regulated by these treatments. However, cranberry and grape seed extracts elicited differential effects on cell adhesion, cell morphology, and cell cycle regulatory pathways. This study represents one of the first comparative investigations of cranberry and grape seed extracts and their anti-proliferative effects on oral cancers. Previous findings using purified proanthocyanidin from grape seed extract demonstrated more prominent growth inhibition, as well as apoptosis-inducing, properties on CAL27 cells. These observations provide evidence that cranberry and grape seed extracts not only inhibit oral cancer proliferation but also that the mechanism of this inhibition may function by triggering key apoptotic regulators in these cell lines. This information will be of benefit to researchers interested in elucidating which dietary [...]

2008-11-03T09:42:11-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|
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