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ABSTRACT: Soybean is known to have an anti-obesity effect. We compared the anti-obesity effect of doenjang, a fermented soybean paste, with that of nonfermented soybeans in rats. Steamed soybeans and doenjang (steamed soybeans fermented and aged for 10 months) were sampled and freeze-dried. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed basal (BA) (5% fat), high fat (HF) (30% fat), HF+steamed soybeans (SOY), or HF+doenjang (DJ) diet ad libitum for 8 weeks. HF significantly increased body weight gain, liver weight, hepatic triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol levels, and epididymal fat pad weight compared with BA. Compared with HF, body weight gain and hepatic TG and cholesterol levels were significantly lower in SOY and DJ groups, but they were not significantly different from each other. DJ significantly reduced visceral fat weight and epididymal adipocyte size compared with HF, whereas SOY resulted in a mild reduction without significance. This was possibly because DJ showed lowered fatty acid synthase (FAS) activity and elevated carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT)-1 activity in liver tissue more than SOY. SOY and DJ did not affect serum total and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels compared with HF; however, DJ significantly lowered the atherogenic index and serum leptin level. In conclusion, doenjang, a fermented soybean product, was more effective than soybeans for preventing diet-induced visceral fat accumulation, possibly because of its greater effects on CPT-1 activity stimulation and FAS activity suppression. These effects may be due in part to the higher content of aglycone isoflavones in doenjang.
Journal of medicinal food 11/2011; 15(1):1-9. · 1.39 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Recently, we found and analyzed vitamin B(12) in some Korean traditional plant foods which had not reported, yet. This study was to investigate vitamin B(12) intake and its dietary sources and the vitamin B(12) status in the very old elderly Koreans. We measured serum vitamin B(12) level and estimated the amounts of vitamin B(12) intake from different dietary sources in female elderly Koreans aged 85 and over who had consumed a relatively low animal traditional diet for the whole life. The average age of the subjects (n = 127) was 98.0 years (85-108 years). The assessment on energy and nutrient intake involved a one-day 24-hour recall, and serum vitamin B(12) concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay. Overall diet pattern was not different between the 85-99 yr-old group and centenarians, except centenarians were taking more dairy product. The average ratio of plant food to animal food consumption was 87.5:12.5 in weight. The average vitamin B(12) intake of our subjects was 3.2 microg/day, and 52.7% of subjects consumed under estimated average requirement, 2.0 microg/day. On dietary source, 67.3% of dietary vitamin B(12) was from meat, eggs and fishes and 30.6% was from plant foods, such as soybean-fermented foods, seaweeds, and kimchi. The average serum vitamin B(12) concentration was 450.5 pg/mL, and low serum vitamin B(12) (< 200 pg/mL) was found in 9.6% of subjects. Dietary vitamin B(12) intake was significantly lower in subjects with low serum vitamin B(12) (0.79 microg/day) than those with normal serum vitamin B(12) (3.47 microg/day). There were no significant difference in vitamin B(12) intake and its dietary sources and serum vitamin B(12) level between the 85-99 yr-old group and centenarians. In conclusion, several plant-origin foods including seaweed, soybean-fermented foods, and kimchi, may contribute significantly to good vitamin B(12) status in very old elderly Koreans.
Nutrition research and practice 06/2010; 4(3):229-34. · 1.08 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Human longevity can be explained by a variety of factors, among them, nutritional factor would play an important role. In our study of Korean centenarians for their longevity, the apparent nutritional imbalance in the traditional semi-vegetarian diet raised a special attention, especially on vitamin B(12) status, supplied by animal foods. Interestingly, we found that the prevalence of vitamin B(12) deficient Korean centenarians was not higher compared with those from Western nations with animal-oriented traditional foods. We assumed that there might be some unveiled sources for vitamin B(12) in the Korean traditional foods. Screening of vitamin B(12) contents has revealed that some traditional soybean-fermented foods, such as Doenjang and Chunggukjang, and seaweeds contain considerable amounts of vitamin B(12). Taken together, it can be summarized that the traditional foods, especially of fermentation, might be evaluated for compensation of the nutritional imbalance in the vegetable-oriented dietary pattern by supplying vitamin B(12), resulting in maintenance of health status.
Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research 01/2010; 2010:374897.
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ABSTRACT: It is known that a close relationship exists among oxidative damage, senescence, and aging. Water dropwort (Ostericum sieboldii Miq. Nakai) and Sedum (Sedum sarmentosum Bunge) are popular green vegetables in Korea and are reported to have strong antioxidative activity. We investigated whether dropwort and Sedum have the potential to prevent aging using H(2)O(2)-induced prematurely senescent human diploid fibroblasts (HDFs). Dropwort and Sedum had similarly high contents of polyphenols, but dropwort had a flavonoid content about twofold higher than that of Sedum. Exposure of young HDFs to H(2)O(2) induced G2/M cell cycle arrest, positive senescence-associated (SA) beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) staining, and elevated p53, p21, and p16 protein levels. However, cotreatment with dropwort or Sedum ethanol extract significantly lowered p53, p21, and p16 levels and intracellular reactive oxygen species levels and attenuated the cell cycle arrest compared with H(2)O(2)-alone treatment. Interestingly, the increase in p16 level was prevented more quickly and clearly by dropwort treatment than Sedum treatment. The number of SA beta-gal-positive cells at 7 days after treatment was significantly reduced in dropwort-treated cells compared to H(2)O(2) alone-treated cells, whereas it was slightly reduced in Sedum-treated cells with no significance. In conclusion, dropwort showed a potential anti-senescence activity in H(2)O(2)-treated HDFs, which might be mediated by reducing p16, p21, and p53 levels and oxidative stress.
Journal of medicinal food 07/2009; 12(3):485-92. · 1.39 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Since it has been reported that Perilla leaves (Perilla frutescens) have antimutagenic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, we hypothesized that Perilla leaves may have a potential anticancer activity. Therefore, we examined the possibility that cancer cell growth is reduced by treatment with a Perilla leaf ethanol extract (PLE) using human leukemia HL-60 cells and then investigated the mechanism of the growth inhibition. We found that PLE treatment suppressed cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that PLE treatment caused the appearance of a sub-G1 DNA peak and induced cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. We detected DNA ladders in PLE-treated cells by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the cleavage of pro-caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase with remarkable activation of caspase-8, -9, and -3. Western blot analysis revealed dose-dependent increases in Bax and cytochrome c in cytosol fractions and decreased Bid and pro-caspase-8 and -3 in PLE-treated cells. In addition, glucose-regulated protein 78, phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 subunit alpha, phosphorylated c-jun N-terminal kinase, and p21 levels were increased by PLE treatment in a dose-dependent manner, whereas the p27 level was not changed. We concluded that PLE induced apoptosis through the combinations of mitochondrial, death receptor-mediated, and endoplasmic reticulum pathways and suppressed the cell proliferation via p21-mediated G1 phase arrest in HL-60 cells.
Journal of medicinal food 07/2009; 12(3):508-17. · 1.39 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Pine needles (Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini) have long been used as a traditional health-promoting medicinal food in Korea. To investigate their potential anticancer effects, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor activities were assessed in vitro and/or in vivo. Pine needle ethanol extract (PNE) significantly inhibited Fe(2+)-induced lipid peroxidation and scavenged 1,1-diphenyl- 2-picrylhydrazyl radical in vitro. PNE markedly inhibited mutagenicity of 2-anthramine, 2-nitrofluorene, or sodium azide in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 or TA100 in Ames tests. PNE exposure effectively inhibited the growth of cancer cells (MCF-7, SNU-638, and HL-60) compared with normal cell (HDF) in 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. In in vivo antitumor studies, freeze-dried pine needle powder supplemented (5%, wt/wt) diet was fed to mice inoculated with Sarcoma-180 cells or rats treated with mammary carcinogen, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA, 50 mg/kg body weight). Tumorigenesis was suppressed by pine needle supplementation in the two model systems. Moreover, blood urea nitrogen and aspartate aminotransferase levels were significantly lower in pine needle-supplemented rats in the DMBA-induced mammary tumor model. These results demonstrate that pine needles exhibit strong antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antiproliferative effects on cancer cells and also antitumor effects in vivo and point to their potential usefulness in cancer prevention.
Nutrition and Cancer 02/2006; 56(2):162-71. · 2.78 Impact Factor
