Jordi Reguant

A Diet Enriched in Polyphenols and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, LMN Diet, Induces Neurogenesis in the Subventricular Zone and Hippocampus of Adult Mouse Brain

At present it is widely accepted that there are at least two neurogenic sites in the adult mammalian brain: the subventricular zone (SVZ) of lateral ventricles and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus dentate gyrus. The adult proliferation rate declines with aging and is altered in several neurodegenerative pathologies including Alzheimers disease. The aim of this work was to study whether a natural diet rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (LMN diet) can modulate neurogenesis in adult mice and give insight into putative mechanisms. Results with BrdU and PCNA demonstrated that the LMN fed mice had more newly generated cells in the SVZ and SGZ, and those with DCX (undifferentiated neurons) and tyrosine hydroxylase, calretinin, and calbindin (differentiated neurons) immunostainings and western blots demonstrated a significant effect on neuronal populations, strongly supporting a positive role of the LMN diet on adult neurogenesis. In primary rat neuron cultures, the LMN cream dramatically protected against damage caused by both hydrogen peroxide and Abeta(1-42), demonstrating a potent antioxidant effect that could play a major role in the normal adult neurogenesis and, moreover, the LMN diet could have a significant effect combating the cognitive function decline during both aging and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers disease.

Multicompartmental LC-Q-TOF-based metabonomics as an exploratory tool to identify novel pathways affected by polyphenol-rich diets in mice.

Metabonomics has recently been used to study the physiological response to a given nutritional intervention, but such studies have usually been restricted to changes in either plasma or urine. In the present study, we demonstrate that the use of LC-Q-TOF-based metabolome analyses (foodstuff, plasma, urine, and caecal content metabolomes) in mice offer higher order information, including intra- and intercompartment relationships. To illustrate this, we performed an intervention study with three different phenolic-rich extracts in mice over 3 weeks. Both unsupervised (PCA) and supervised (PLS-DA) multivariate analyses used for pattern recognition revealed marked effects of diet in each compartment (plasma, urine, and caecal contents). Specifically, dietary intake of phenolic-rich extract affects pathways such as bile acid and taurine metabolism. Q-TOF-based metabonomics demonstrated that the number of correlations is higher in caecal contents and urine than in plasma. Moreover, intercompartment correlations showed that caecal contents-plasma correlations are the most frequent in mice, followed by plasma-urine ones. The number of inter- and intracompartment correlations is significantly affected by diet. These analyses reveal the complexity of interorgan metabolic relationships and their sensitivity to dietary changes.

Cellulose from Softwood via Prehydrolysis and Soda/Anthraquinone Pulping

Abstract A two stage process based on a hydrolytic pretreatment and a soda/anthraquinone pulping stage has been studied to produce bleachable-grade cellulose from residual softwood sawdust, concretely a mixture of ground spruce (Abies alba) and pine (Pinus insignis). The hydrolytic pretreatment, which is carried out in an isothermal plug-flow reactor, solubilizes the hemicelluloses and substances of low molecular weight, and partially depolymerizes the lignin which can then be more easily extracted during the pulping stage. Soda/AQ pulping was performed on the pretreated fiber in a stirred batch reactor. The resulting cellulose pulps have low contents of residual hemicelluloses and ash, and a low enough amount of residual lignin which means that a chlorine-free bleaching procedure may be used. The effect of the process variables on the chemical characteristics and yields of the unbleached cellulose are presented. The combination of an autohydrolytic pretreatment at 231 °C for 5.5 min and a pulping stage a...

Modulation of catecholaminergic and cholinergic neurons in mice fed with LMN diet, rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids

including the fulfill of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) that encompasses 19 medical conditions; Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS); Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Pfeffer, and BEHAVE. Results: From the original sample: 11 subjects (13.1%, aged 75.5462.31 years) fulfilled DSM-IV criteria for dementia, 50 subjects (61.7%) presented at least one comorbid clinical condition, and 35 (44.3%) presented major depressive symptomatology. Even though, we did not observed significant difference regarding to the presence of clinical comorbidities in demented and non-demented subjects, there was a trend in the prediction of higher CCI score and MMSE scores (p1⁄40.08). Logistic regression also showed that dementia was strongly associated to depressive symptomatology, increasing age, impairment in daily life activities and presence of behavioral pathology. In the same direction, depressive symptomatology was directly correlated to the presence of behavioral pathology (p1⁄40.006). Conclusions: In the evaluation of an elderly subject the assessment of comorbidities should be accounted to the presence of depressive symptomatology. As depressive symptoms is a potentially modifiable factor it is important to recognize and treat, therefore resulting in better quality of life and lower level of morbidity in the elderly.

Carboxymethyl Cellulose from Waste Lignocellulosic Pulps Produced by a Fast Soda/Aq Process

Abstract Cellulose pulps were prepared from ground branch wood from pine and poplar and ground wheat straw by a fast soda/anthraquinone pulping. This process used high pulping temperatures and short residence times. Various combinations of temperature and time were used so that the H factor for pulps from pine and poplar was a constant 2700 while for pulps from wheat straw it was 270. The chemical composition of the resulting cellulose pulps was characterized and the possibility of synthesizing carboxymethyl cellulose from them was evaluated. The degree of substitution of our CMCs was found to be dependent upon the source of the lignocellullosic material, but independent of the pulping conditions for a specific substrate, (0.75 for pine, 0.82 for poplar and 0.89 for wheat straw). The rheological properties, the intrinsic viscosity and the molecular weight of the CMCs were found to be dependent on the pulping conditions for each lignocellulosic tested. The molecular weights of our CMC samples were 219,000 to 316,000 for pine, 335,000 to 375,000 for poplar, and 350,000 to 383,000 for wheat straw. The molecular weights were highest for the pulps cooked at low temperatures.

When cholesterol is not cholesterol: a note on the enzymatic determination of its concentration in model systems containing vegetable extracts

BackgroundExperimental evidences demonstrate that vegetable derived extracts inhibit cholesterol absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. To further explore the mechanisms behind, we modeled duodenal contents with several vegetable extracts.ResultsBy employing a widely used cholesterol quantification method based on a cholesterol oxidase-peroxidase coupled reaction we analyzed the effects on cholesterol partition. Evidenced interferences were analyzed by studying specific and unspecific inhibitors of cholesterol oxidase-peroxidase coupled reaction. Cholesterol was also quantified by LC/MS. We found a significant interference of diverse (cocoa and tea-derived) extracts over this method. The interference was strongly dependent on model matrix: while as in phosphate buffered saline, the development of unspecific fluorescence was inhibitable by catalase (but not by heat denaturation), suggesting vegetable extract derived H2O2 production, in bile-containing model systems, this interference also comprised cholesterol-oxidase inhibition. Several strategies, such as cholesterol standard addition and use of suitable blanks containing vegetable extracts were tested. When those failed, the use of a mass-spectrometry based chromatographic assay allowed quantification of cholesterol in models of duodenal contents in the presence of vegetable extracts.ConclusionsWe propose that the use of cholesterol-oxidase and/or peroxidase based systems for cholesterol analyses in foodstuffs should be accurately monitored, as important interferences in all the components of the enzymatic chain were evident. The use of adequate controls, standard addition and finally, chromatographic analyses solve these issues.

The Antioxidant Effect of LMN Diet, Rich in Polyphenols and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial neurological disorder in which oxidative stress plays an important role. Diet is closely related to cognition, and at present, there is mounting evidence that certain antioxidant components of diet intake could be beneficial for preventing AD. LMN diet, based on cocoa, nuts, polyphenols, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (patent WO2007063158) has been previously reported to reduce the cardiovascular risk factors common to AD pathology. Herein we report the antioxidant behavior of LMN using SH-SY5Y cell line lesioned with hydrogen peroxide and measuring the expression of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase-1 and glutathione peroxidase. The signaling pathways involved were also assessed. The antioxidant effect was also demonstrated in hippocampus and plasma of 4-month-old 129S1/SvImJ male mice fed with LMN diet. Integrated metabolome analyses of these tissues and plasma from human subjects after acute consumption of LMN reinforced the importance of oxidative stress, acting possibly through poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 modulation and linoleic acid metabolism.