Tea is a heavily consumed beverage world wide because of its unique aroma, less cost and broad availability. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) is a key enzyme in lipogenesis. FAS is overexpressed in the malignant human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells and its expression is further enhanced by the epidermal growth factor (EGF). The EGF-induced expression of FAS was inhibited by green and black tea extracts. The expression of FAS was also suppressed by the tea polyphenol (À)-epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), theaflavin (TF-1), TF-2 and theaflavin 3,3 0 -digallate(TF-3) at both protein and mRNA levels that may lead to the inhibition of cell lipogenesis and proliferation. Both EGCG and TF-3 inhibit the activation of Akt and block the binding of Sp-1 to its target site. Furthermore, the EGF-induced biosyntheses of lipids and cell proliferation were significantly suppressed by EGCG and TF-3. These findings suggest that tea polyphenols suppress FAS expression by downregulating EGF receptor/ PI3K/Akt/Sp-1 signal transduction pathway, and tea and tea polyphenols might induce hypolipidemic and antiproliferative effects by suppressing FAS.
Plants and probiotics have a long history in the treatment of gastrointestinal ailments. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of Tibetan yogurt and fresh broccoli tips in Helicobacter pylori- (H. pylori) infected volunteers, using the urea breath test (UBT) to assess the effect on H. pylori. Clinical trials consisted of ingestion of approximately 135 g of fresh, finely minced juvenile broccoli tips (var. Emperor) in commercial plain yogurt t.i.d, for ten servings (3.3 days) or ingestion of freshly made Tibetan yogurt whey (120 ml) given twice a day for 3.5 days. Urea breath testing was done before and after the natural therapies. Five volunteers received broccoli tips and seven received Tibetan yogurt. No trend for a beneficial effect was seen; the UBT results (delta over baseline) before and after yogurt (35.5+/-12.8 vs. 40.7+/-12.2) (p=0.76) or broccoli (15.8 vs. 19.4) (p=1.0) were unchanged. Antimicrobial end products derived from Tibetan yogurt or broccoli tips have little or no anti-H. pylori effect in vivo. It appears that the gastric mucosal microenvironment apparently shielded H. pylori. In vitro studies suggesting anti-H. pylori activity of compounds should be considered as hypotheses to be tested.
International audienceUsing the vector radiative transfer equation, we have obtained the first-order solution for the problem dealing with multiple scattering from an ensemble of nonspherical particles. Representative results for low-absorbent disks (oblate spheroids) as well as high-absorbent disks were obtained. In general, it was found that multiple scattering effects were more prominent for low-absorbent particles
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