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- Author or Editor: T Varjas x
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Despite many different trials, no effective dietotherapy exists for curing enormous weight loss caused by malignant diseases yet. The present study was aimed at determining in an animal model, weather some natural products might be included in the dietotherapy of cancerous patients with cachexia. Tumour was transplanted into Fischer 344 rats drinking either seabuckthorn extract, green tea, deuterium depleted water, trace elements preparation, fruits’ extract or multivitamin solution. Weight loss, tumour growth and expression of Ha-ras gene were determined. All the investigated natural products have significantly decreased tumour growth, and trace elements preparation has significantly decreased weight loss. Green tea, seabuckthorn extract and deuterium depleted water have notably diminished Ha-ras gene expression. Our results suggest that these natural products may be useful in inhibiting tumour growth, and some of them may be applied in the dietotherapy of cancer-related weight loss.
Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) could contribute to tissue regeneration through the ability to form somatic cells. CD34 positivity is regarded as stem cell (SC) or endothelial progenitor cell (EP) marker. According to literature natural substances could increase the release of CD34 positive (CD34+) cells. In this study we investigated the basic rate of CD34+ cells in peripheral blood of CBA/Ca (H-2k haplotype) and BALB/c inbred mice by flow cytometry. Then we treated the mice with a new mixture of medical herbs, and we measured the level of CD34+ cells at 1, 3, 6, 18 and 24 hours after the treatment. A biological rhythm in the untreated blood was detected. Moreover the used herbal compounds increased the number of CD34+ cells.Although SC number is individually and highly variable in peripheral blood, the fluctuation could be used as a biomarker like the other compounds of peripheral blood in different aspects in risk assessment.
It has been reported that some of the food additives may cause sensitization, inflammation of tissues, and potentially risk factors in the development of several chronic diseases. Thus, we hypothesized that expressions of common inflammatory molecules – known to be involved in the development of various inflammatory conditions and cancers – are affected by these food additives. We investigated the effects of commonly used food preservatives and artificial food colorants based on the expressions of NFκB, GADD45α, and MAPK8 (JNK1) from the tissues of liver. RNA was isolated based on Trizol protocol and the activation levels were compared between the treated and the control groups. Tartrazine alone could elicit effects on the expressions of NFκB (p = 0.013) and MAPK8 (p = 0.022). Azorubine also resulted in apoptosis according to MAPK8 expression (p = 0.009). Preservatives were anti-apoptotic in high dose. Sodium benzoate (from low to high doses) dose-dependently silenced MAPK8 expression (p = 0.004 to p = 0.002). Addition of the two preservatives together elicited significantly greater expression of MAPK8 at half-fold dose (p = 0.002) and at fivefold dose (p = 0.008). This study suggests that some of the food preservatives and colorants can contribute to the activation of inflammatory pathways.
