Introduction Excessive caloric intake and insufficient physical activity can result in the accumulation of visceral fat, and now, obesity is a worldwide problem. A study of overweight and obesity in 195 countries over 25 years reported that in 2015, there were 107.7 million obese children and 603.7 million obese adults 1. Visceral fat accumulation is associated with an increased risk of arteriosclerotic diseases through lipid or glucose tolerance, metabolic abnormalities, and hypertension, with cardiovascular diseases accounting for more than two-thirds of deaths related to high body mass index 1. Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation in the
Maillard-type glycosylation was applied to preparation of hypoallergenic agents from a major buckwheat allergen, Fag e 1. Conjugation with arabinogalactan (AG), xyloglucan (XG), or yeast glucomannan (YGM) successfully decreased in vitro allergenicity of Fag e 1. Determination of IgE titer in the tested allergic mice revealed that YGM was the most effective for in vivo allergenicity of Fag e 1 among these water-soluble polysaccharides. Real-time PCR analysis using a set of primer for IL-4 (a typical Th2 cytokine) or IFN-gamma (a typical Th1 cytokine) showed that expressed mRNA for IL-4 in splenocytes drastically decreased with increasing with Fag e 1-YGM conjugate feeding. In addition, based on a flow-cytometric analysis of T cell subsets in the splenocytes, it was confirmed that the feeding led to an improvement of Th1/Th2 balance in the allergic mice where population of Th1 increased from 2.91% to 4.02%, while that of Th2 decreased from 3.75% to 2.72%. Furthermore, it was revealed that differentiation ratio of regulatory T cell (Treg) in the splenocytes increased from 14.5% to 18.7% by the oral administration. These results indicated that Fag e 1-YGM conjugate can be available for an immunomodulating agent for buckwheat allergy.
We previously performed a 4 week interventional trial that suggested that continuous intake of rosemary extract improves the mood states, fatigue, and cognitive function of working generation healthy adult Japanese men. However, the severity of depression in participants in our previous study was relatively mild. Therefore, in the present study, a post-hoc analysis of our previous study was conducted, limited to participants whose total mood disturbance (TMD) scores, which indicate greater mood disturbance, were above the median at baseline, to evaluate whether rosemary extract was effective for individuals with poor mental health. Following the intervention, the scores of TMD and “Confusion-Bewilderment” were significantly decreased (both p < 0.05), and scores of “Vigor-Activity” were significantly increased in the rosemary group (n = 8) compared with those in the control group (n = 13; p < 0.01). When comparing the scores from pre- and post-intervention, significant improvements in “Tension-Anxiety”, “Vigor-Activity”, “Fatigue on awakening”, “Daytime sleepiness”, and “Psychomotor speed” were observed in the rosemary group only (all p < 0.05). Based on these results, it was expected that rosemary extracts were effective for improving the mental energy and sleep quality of work-age men with poor mental health.
We showed that an ethanol extract from Zanthoxylum piperitum can shorten the circadian rhythm at the cellular level and that this activity was due to hydroxy-β-sanshool, a secondary metabolite in...
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