Several analytical approaches are available for investigating the antioxidant power for antioxidants, and they are based on a variety of chemical principles, such as oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), and ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP). This paper reports a new rapid method for investigating antioxidant power on the basis of the electron-donating ability. This method is called chemiluminescence analysis of antioxidant power (CAAP). The electrons donated from antioxidants are capable of inducing chemiluminescence in the presence of lucigenin and a base. Thus, the intensity of chemiluminescence induced by antioxidants is proportional to their electron-donating ability (antioxidant power). It was found that the correlation between CAAP and FRAP was positive (r = 0.959) and statistically significant (p< 0.05). In addition to the FRAP assay, the rapid CAAP assay is convenient for investigating the antioxidant power of herbal extracts.
Uremic patients with diabetes suffer from high levels of oxidative stress due to regular hemodialysis therapy (neutrophil activation induced by hemo-incompatibility between the hemodialyser and blood) and complications associated with diabetes. Several plasma biomarkers were screened in 13 uremic diabetic patients after receiving the mixture of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a major component of green tea extract, and Amla extract (AE), from Emblica officinalis, the Indian gooseberry, for 3 months. We found that oral administration of a 1:1 mixture of EGCG and AE for 3 months significantly improved antioxidant defense as well as diabetic and atherogenic indices in uremic patients with diabetes. Furthermore, no significant changes in hepatic function, renal function, or inflammatory responses were observed. These results suggest that a 1:1 combination of EGCG and AE is a safe and effective treatment for uremic patients with diabetes.
The present study tests a hypothesis that cardioprotective effects mediated by autologous adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) in rats afflicted with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) may be synergistically enhanced by oral treatment with green tea epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Wistar rats were divided into sham, DM, DM+ADSC (autologous transplanted 1 × 10 cells per rat), and DM+ADSC+E (E, green tea oral administration EGCG). Heart tissues were isolated from all rats, and investigations were performed after 2-mo treatment. In the sham, DM, and DM+ADSC groups, we found that DM induced cardiac dysfunction (sham and DM) and autologous ADSC transplantation could partially recover cardiac functions (DM and DM+ADSC) in DM rats. Compared with DM+ADSC, significant improvement in cardiac functions can be observed in DM+ADSC+E in echocardiographic data, histological observations, and even cellular protein expression. Oral green tea EGCG administration and autologous ADSC transplantation show synergistically beneficial effects on diabetic cardiac myopathy in DM rats. Cardiomyopathy can be induced in rats with diabetes mellitus (DM). Heart function can be restored in DM rats with adipose-derived stem cell treatment. Oral epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) administration synergistically enhances cardiac function in DM rats with stem cell treatment. The EGCG and stem cell treatment cross-effect occurs via survival protein expression.
Uremic patients with hyperlipidemia are classified at high atherogenic risk due to oxidative stress induced by regular hemodialysis process (hemoincompatibility) and a high level of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL). This study aimed to investigate whether LDL apheresis was capable of reducing oxidative and atherogenic markers in uremic patients with hyperlipidemia. We found that oxidative metabolites (methylquanidine, dityrosine, and ox-LDL) and atherogenic markers (lipoprotein (a), LDL, and LDL/HDL ratio) were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) after LDL apheresis. On the other hand, plasma total antioxidant status (TAS) was not influenced after LDL apheresis. Our results suggest that LDL apheresis reduces oxidative and atherogenic markers and do not influence plasma TAS in uremic patients with hyperlipidemia. This may lead to a decreased risk of atherosclerosis in these patients. However, supplementation of dietary proteins may be necessary because of the removal of some "useful" proteins (e.g., albumin and globulin) after LDL apheresis.
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